Spat keeps teachers away from Cheyyar Government School

The thought of attending school sends a shiver down the spines of a number of teachers of Cheyyar Government Boys Higher Secondary School. Almost everyday, the school turns a battlefield with groups of students, formed predominantly on caste lines, clashing with each other.

“Four teachers got themselves transferred last year and two more teachers got transfer three months ago from the school,” said a physics teacher of the school. “The students confront us when we try to pacify them and prevent them from fighting with each other.” The strength of students of the school (Class VI to Class XII) had also drastically reduced to around 2,200 from an average of 3,000 in the past few years.

“Many parents admitted their children in nearby schools after seeing the growing communal problems on the school campus,” said a staff of the school, who admitted his son in a nearby private school last year.

Sources said, there are two groups in the school formed by SC students from Kanni Nagar and MBC (Vanniya) students from Venkatarayanpettai. The rest, hailing from Nedumpirai, Vazhikodai, Palli, Vadugapattu and Irungur villages, often find themselves in the crossfire.

“We are always the victims,” said a class XI boy hailing from Vazhikodi village on the outskirts of Cheyyar Town. He said students from other villages were regularly beaten up by both the groups. A student said if a boy spoke to students of Venkatarayanpettai, the SC students would beat him up and if he spoke to the Kanni Nagar group, he would get beaten up by Vanniya students. “The SC and Vanniya students also misbehave with teachers if they question them or advise them,” said Gopal (name changed), a student of class XII.

 “Instead of advising their children, parents support the boys. While the parents of SC students say that the Vanniya students are trying to oppress their children, the parents of Vanniya students refute that saying the SC students are trying to dominate their children. But the parents are not thinking about the future their children,” said a teacher, who had been working in the school for the past 10 years.  He said few parents washed their hands off saying that their sons were not listening to them. “Now, these boys brought a bad reputation to the school. We sent out one SC student with a transfer certificate for misbehaving with a woman teacher but he rejoined after local politicians raised the issue with the CEO. Now he continues to cause troubles,” the teacher added.