Puducherry: School shut down after fight breaks out among students and parents on campus

NKC Government Girls' Higher Secondary School in Kurusukuppam, Puducherry, has now been shut down. This is due to the prevailing tension among the students and parents, who engaged in a brawl inside the school campus. The brawl turned violent and necessitated police intervention. PWD Minister K Lakshminarayanan, who is the MLA of the area, also stepped in to diffuse the situation, as per a report by The New Indian Express. 

The issue started when another school was shifted into the NKC campus and this did not go down well with the students. The Subramanya Bharathiar (SB) Government Girls' Higher Secondary School was temporarily shifted to the NKC premises last week as the SB school building was undergoing repairs by the PWD. Teachers and students were shifted accordingly. Around 130 students studying in Classes XI and XII in NKC were joined by 550 students from SB school. With the classes of both the schools combined, some of the additional teachers of NKC school were shifted to other schools by the School Education Department, as per TNIE.

Following this, the students of NKC school started a protest a few days ago, alleging that the SB school teachers were discriminating against them and pointed out the deficiency of basic facilities in the school. On Thursday, September 15, Class XII students of NKC staged a sit-in dharna in front of the institution, alleging a lack of academic care.

The differences between the students increased. The NKC students were lagging in lessons, while SB students were ahead. And teachers of SB were not willing to adjust and blamed it on the NKC teachers. In this situation, the parents rushed to the school after they heard that their wards were being assaulted by students from the other school. The school atmosphere became tense with students rushing out of their classrooms and joining the quarrel. As it got out of hand, the police were called in and Joint Director of School Education, Sivagami, also rushed to the school, as per TNIE.

The Joint Director separately heard the grievances of the students and their parents and advised the students to go to their classrooms, assuring that their grievances would be redressed. However, within minutes of students going back to their classes, reluctantly, a physical fight broke out in the school with students attacking each other with their pens, school bags and books, while parents also joined in.

The PWD Minister advised the Education Department to close the school for three days, till a solution was found. The students have been sent home to study for the exams, which are beginning on September 22. As a security measure, a police picket has been posted on the site.