Tamil Nadu: Menstruating girl forced to write exam outside classroom
The headmistress of the private higher secondary school in Coimbatore was suspended following the incident.
A girl in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district was allegedly asked by the authorities at her school to write an examination sitting on a staircase outside her classroom because she was menstruating, The Indian Express reported on Friday.
The headmistress of the private school in the district’s Senguttaipalayam village was suspended following the incident, the newspaper quoted district school education department officials as saying.
On Wednesday, a video recorded by the mother of the 13-year-old girl was widely shared on social media, according to The Indian Express. The video showed the girl writing the examination on the staircase.
She is also heard saying that she was barred from entering her classroom after her teacher told the principal that she had attained puberty.
“If someone gets their period, does that mean they cannot sit inside the classroom and write their exams?” the newspaper quoted her mother as saying in the video. “Should they sit on the road and write?”
The girl’s parents told reporters later that they had requested the school to provide a separate table and chair to help their daughter write the exam, reported PTI. “But, the school did not make the arrangement.”
A preliminary investigation was undertaken by the education department and the police into the incident, The Indian Express reported. It revealed that the mother had requested separate arrangements for the girl to write the examination as it was the first time she was menstruating.
“Initial inquiry revealed that the mother had been aware of the arrangement,” the newspaper quoted an unidentified police officer as saying. “The girl, currently in Class 8, began menstruating on April 5.”
The officer said that the girl was made to take her science examination on April 7 and her social science paper on April 9 while seated on a staircase.
“While the school insists the decision was based on the mother’s preference, the mother was offended at seeing her daughter writing the exam without even a desk,” the officer said, adding that show-cause notice had also been issued along with the probe by the school education department.
