Parents protest ‘forcible’ hair-cutting of students

Chandigarh, July 31: Parents of six students of a government school here on Thursday accused teachers of the school of allowing adult education students forcibly cut the hair of their wards.

Taking a serious note of the issue, officials of the Chandigarh education department said they would look into the case and take action against the guilty.

“The school premises were provided to the department of adult education to hold their workshop. We will look into the matter and will discuss it with the officials concerned. Appropriate action will be taken if we find anyone guilty,” said Samwartak Singh, director public instruction (schools).

Parents of the six class four students of the Government Middle School here in Sector 52 gathered in the school, along with other residents of their area, to protest against the incident.

“Our daughter started crying when she returned home. She told us that her teachers forced her to go for a hair-cut against her will. How can they do these experiments on our children,” said Mamta, mother of a student Jyoti.

The education department runs the adult education programme under which various vocational courses like health-care and beauty culture are taught. A workshop under this programme was going on in the school and “hair-cuts of the students were done to impart practical experience to the participants”, an official of the adult education department said.

However, seeking to refute all these allegations, the official said: “We did not force anyone to have a hair-cut. The students go for it on their own.” (IANS)