Boy repeating Class 10: HM, class teacher suspended

VELLORE: Days after reports of boy, who had cleared the Class 10 public exam last year, was detained in the same class in a Vellore school surfaced, Chief Education Officer, Vellore, on Thursday ordered the suspension of headmaster (in-charge) and class teacher of the government higher secondary school at Valathur near Gudiyattam.

While the school HM (in-charge) and a class teacher are suspended, two of the three subject teachers are set to face departmental action, according to Vellore district CEO G Munusamy. The third teacher in the issue had already left the school, officials said. However, officials refused to reveal the names of the teachers against whom action has been taken.

It may be recalled that Ganesh (16), son of Pushparaj, a daily wage earner, was a Class 10 student of Valathur govt HSS. Due to the pandemic, government ordered that all students be promoted to Class 11. However, no one seemed to have told Ganesh about this and he continued in Class 10 for one year in 2021-2022 also.

The issue came to light when he tried to get his SSLC hall ticket online. As his name did not appear, he approached teachers, who found his name missing as he had been declared passed.

Officials were left red faced as they could not explain how neither the class teacher nor subject teachers failed to notice a student attending the same class while his peers moved on.

Asked about the future of Ganesh, official sources revealed, “The boy took his TC and left to continue technical studies in an ITI. Though we assured the boy that he will be allowed to continue in the appropriate class, he refused.”