Ghaziabad, March 26 (IANS) A girl student appearing for her high school examination was made to take off her shirt in the classroom by a woman invigilator who suspected her of concealing some written material for cheating inside her clothes. The girl's parents Friday protested against the incident.
The girl was appearing for the Uttar Pradesh board high school examination in Modi Nagar of Ghaziabad Thursday.
The father of the girl Jaivir Chaudhary said his daughter is a student of PBS Inter College, Adarsh Nagar, in Modi Nagar but her examination centre was in the Girl Inter College in the town.
On Thursday morning, when the girl was sitting to take her English paper, a woman invigilator, heading a checking squad, reached the examination hall. The woman asked the girl to stand on her seat for being checked. When her accompanying staff did not find any suspicious article on the girl, the invigilator asked the girl to take off her shirt for proper checking.
When the girl did not comply, the woman directed her juniors to forcibly take off the girl's shirt. The subordinate staff obliged in order to check the girl. Feeling humiliated after the incident, the girl was unable to write her examination properly.
The incident sparked outrage among the girl's family and residents of the area. They entered the examination centre and took the examination superintendent and the woman invigilator to task.
"We returned from the school after the teacher and the principal apologized for the act although the village head Shahid Chaudhary and another councillor Durgesh Sharma were not convinced with the teachers' oral apology," said the father. "We wanted to file an FIR with the police, but decided to oblige the principal who entreated us not to go ahead," he added.
The principal was not available for comments on telephone, but a teacher of the school, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Our fault was small but has been exaggerated by the media. The invigilator suspected that the student had hidden some article in her shirt and therefore ordered extensive search by partially lifting her shirt. We have to be strict to check copying and cheating during examinations."