Amidst the hijab-saffron shawl row, high schools in Mysuru city and the district reopened on Monday with the police personnel standing guard around the schools as a precautionary measure.
Officials from the Mysuru district administration, the Department of Public Instruction and the City and District Police coordinated among themselves for smooth and peaceful resumption of classes, which had been suspended following the row.
The Mysuru city police have imposed prohibitory orders within 200 metres of schools and colleges here from 6 a.m. of Monday to 10 p.m. of February 28 to stop people from gathering around the schools as a precautionary measure in the wake of controversy surrounding the dress code.
When the schools reopened this morning, officials rushed to four schools where Muslim girls turned up wearing hijab to speak to the children and their parents even as the reopening in other parts of the district was smooth.
At two places, some girl children returned home without attending classes as they were not allowed to wear the headscarf.
Deputy Director of Public Instruction in Mysuru Ramachandra Raje Urs told The Hindu three children at K.R. Mill colony school in Mysuru taluk and 10 children at a school in Berya, K.R. Nagar taluk. went home without attending the classes. In all other schools, the resumption of classes was smooth though in some places the children attended the classes after taking off the head scarf after being counselled by the teachers.
On day one of reopening, the schools recorded 85 per cent attendance. Some children were absent since the schools insisted on the dress code.
Mr. Urs said the BEOs and other officers from the department rushed to schools where Muslim girls had come wearing hijab, to persuade them to attend classes by taking off the scarf. “The officers and the school authorities persuaded the children at Kavalande school in Nanjangud taluk to attend the school assembly in the prescribed uniform,” he informed.
Reports of students coming to school wearing hijab had come from K.R. Mill Colony in Mysuru taluk; Berya village in K.R. Nagar taluk; and at a locality in Narasimharaja Assembly constituency in Mysuru city. Barring these four schools, classes resumed smoothly in schools across the district. “I have got reports from all taluks where classes have commenced smoothly,” he added.
The police had taken a lot of precautionary steps ahead of the reopening of the schools as they staged a route march in sensitive areas of the city as a confidence building measure among the public and the students.
The police had kept vigil around the schools with patrolling teams monitoring the situation and senior police officers keeping watch on the developments. The police personnel were seen asking the parents to leave the premises after dropping off their children at schools as gathering in groups was banned with ban orders in place here.
