Media release

Mangaluru, Feb 15: The St Gerosa Higher Primary School has clarified that it witnessed an unfortunate and sad event on February 8, which was unprecedented in its 60 years of existence.

In a press statement, headmistress of the school Sr Anitha said that on February 10 four persons had approached her with the complaint that Sr Prabha had made some derogatory statements against the Hindu religion and the prime minister while teaching the poem ‘Work is Worship’ authored by Rabindranath Tagore.

The headmistress said she had then assured them that she would look into the matter and take appropriate action. On enquiry, she said the teacher concerned had completely denied the allegations.

Here is the poem for perusal:

Work is Worship

Leave this chanting and singing
and telling of beads! Whom dost thou
worship in this lonely dark corner of a
temple with doors all shut? Open
thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee
He is there the tiller is tilling
the hard ground and where the path-maker
is breaking stones. He is with them
in sun and shower, and his
garment is covered with dust. Put off
thy holy mantle and even like him come
down on the dusty soil!
Deliverance? Where is this deliverance
to be found? Our master himself
has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of
creation; he is bound with us all forever.
Come out of thy meditations and
leave aside thy flowers and incense!
What harm is there if thy clothes
become tattered and stained? Meet
him and stand by him in toil and in
sweat of thy brow.

Sr Anitha has clarified that the teacher explained thus while teaching the poem:

• Temples, churches and mosques are only buildings. God dwells in the human hearts. Hence not to kill the human beings in the name of God.
• We need to respect the work and the human beings and see God in them.
• God doesn’t exist in the structures but in the human hearts and all of us are temples of God

The headmistress said in the statement that the teacher said she had not spoken anything against any God but explained to the students the meaning of the poem. The teacher had also made it clear that she did not hurt Hindu religious sentiments, Sr Anitha added.

The school headmistress said, "As alleged by the anonymous woman in the voice message and the BJP leaders, Sr Prabha did not make any derogatory remarks against Hindu or any other religion or on prime minister while explaining the poem."

Sr Anitha said the school management had approached the district administration stating that the audio message was far from the truth and had sought an enquiry into the matter and also protection from any untoward incident.

"A complaint was also lodged with the police to take action against the woman’s audio that had gone viral," Sr Anitha said.

"On February 12 officials from the Department of Education, a subject inspector from BEO office, a co-ordinator from DDPI office, BEO, ECO and CRP visited the school for whom the truth was explained on their request," she said.

"This was followed by the arrival of local MLA Vedavyas Kamath with a group of Hindu activists who shouted slogans against the school. The management recognised his presence, owed him due respect and invited him inside the school, but he refused to come in but protested against the school and management. It was hurting to see that MLA who should have been a person for all, gathered the children around him and instigated them to shout slogans, against their own school. The students who were not in the class while teaching the poem, but of other classes were also made to shout slogans," Sr Anitha said.

The school headmistress said BEO and other educational department officials had asked the school to meet the MLA who was protesting at the school gate.

"When I met him subsequently, he asked me immediately to dismiss the teacher failing which he threatened to intensify the protest. I told him that I cannot remove the teacher without enquiry as per education institution rules. But the mob led by MLA pressurised me to remove the teacher with immediate effect. With no other go and to maintain law and order and to disperse the mob that was swelling, I was forced to issue a statement removing Sr Prabha from the job," Sr Anitha said.

The headmistress said Sr Prabha has a total teaching experience of 16 years including five years in Gerosa School.

"There has been no complaint against her so far. Critical point of the whole episode which needs to be looked into is Whether the lady who spoke about the school in viral audio is actually a parent of Gerosa student. ?If not, what is her agenda behind making such bold allegations. ?If she was a parent why she did not give a written complaint to the school management about the issue?", she asked. 

The headmistress said, "It appears that the incident/protest was stage managed to tarnish the image of school, which has been imparting quality education with minimum fees. We being secular in our outlook always respect all students and do not discriminate anyone on the basis of caste, creed and religion. Every year we celebrate Deepavali, Christmas and Eid We were told that the police did not allow the media personnel inside the Gerosa premises during the unfortunate incident. We apologise for the same."