Regardless of the legal result of the fight that 41-year-old English teacher Sanjay Salve ("Pray, what wrong did I do, asks Nashik teacher", September 1, The Hindu) has taken to the courts against imposition of prayers in his school, he needs to be supported for raising an issue of fundamental importance to education and its politics. That he is facing persecution in a school named after the courageous social revolutionary Savitribai Phule makes it all the more ironic and tragic. As a school teacher, I have often felt utter dismay at the mindless way in which mass prayer songs have been made a part of school assembly. Anybody with a minimum sense of decency will find it wrong to compel anyone to participate in an event against his or her conscience. What’s more, students are not informed that they have the right not to sing along or exhibit any particular posture during a prayer in whose contents they do not subscribe. Moreover, as rightly argued by the English teacher, students and their families may have atheistic orientation which are not proscribed in this country and by forcing such persons to pray, the authorities are directly attacking their freedom and democracy. Firoz Ahmad Courtesy: The Hindu, Readers Mail, 9th September 2013 thehindu/todays-paper/pray-what-wrong-did-i-do-asks-nashik-teacher/article5081224.ece
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 06:53:55 +0000
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