2 Mewat teachers go on leave, faculty strength down to 3

GURGAON : After a scuffle broke out on Tuesday at the Mewat Model School at Madhi during which a group of 8-10 men allegedly threatened Santram, the Arts teacher, the latter along with the principal have gone on leave, leaving students in the lurch. The school is now left with only three teachers for 207 students.

With a faculty strength of eight, the school was already grappling with staff shortage. Three of them, also taught at Nagina school and visited the Madhi school once in three days.

On Thursday, the three-member committee set up to probe the alleged conversion of some students to Islam, visited the school along with the CID and police officers and interacted with the students over the conduct of teachers at the school. The three teachers who faced action for allegedly to trying to force Hindu students ‘to offer namaz and embrace Islam’ responded to the summonses issued to them on Wednesday and appeared before the panel.

Following the suspension of two teachers and the transfer of one on Fridayin connectionwith the alleged forced conversion row, the faculty strength of the school, which also doubles up as a hostel, was reduced to five.

A source said that Tuesday’s scuffle seems to have instilled a sense of fear and insecurity among the remaining teachers and the same, perhaps, explains why two of them went on leave.

Santram claimed his family, including his five-year-old son, is very scared since the fracas on Tuesday. “Even on Saturday, a group of villagers barged into the school. On Tuesday, they threatened me and even slapped me,” Santram said.

The alleged forced conversion row hit the headlines on July 22 after two of the three Hindu students in the school sought their school leaving certificates claiming that some Muslim students forced them to offer namaz and embrace Islam.