Chennai Schools Impose Ban on Outsiders Addressing Students

Chennai: Days after a controversy broke out over a ‘motivational’ speech delivered by the founder of Paramporul Foundation, Mahavishu, at a government girls’ school in Chennai, a circular has been sent to heads of schools and chief educational officers (CEOs) of the Stag urging them to not allow any outsiders to address students.

Stringent action would be taken against the head of the school if anyone other than members of the teaching staff and the temporary teachers drawing government salary were allowed to take classes to students, warned the circular.

The circular not just prohibits strangers to the school in the premises but also NGO representatives (many of them could be working there in various projects for years), alumni, school management committee members and politicians from speaking directly to the students.

It imposes a blanket ban on organizing non-academic events in schools without the permission of the CEO and directions to head of the school to not to allow any medical teams other than that from the National Health Movement to hold health camps in the school.

Whenever students were to be taken outside the school for participating in competitions or events, the prior permission of the CEO should be obtained and even the activities of the rainbow club activities have been suspended temporarily.

The circular bans teachers from leaving the school premises during lunch break and also prohibits them from talking to the students in a negative way or suggestive manner or in double entendre or making telephone calls to them.

Students’ attendance related issues should be discussed only with parents and there should be no event inside the school during holiday. Only the CEO could grant permission for any event on a holiday, the circular said.

The circular had come about after the issue relating to Mahavishnu, the self-styled motivational speaker, continued to dominate social media with almost every YouTube channel in Tamil uploading a video on it for the past few days after the video on the speaker having an argument with teacher inside a school in Chennai went viral.

The teacher had interrupted the speaker as he found some of the observations and instructions to be irrational and promoting superstitions, triggering an open debate that was captured on camera by the Paramporul Foundation members who uploaded the video in their channel.

When that video was shared by someone else, it went viral causing a public outcry with every social media channel joining the debate. Mahavishu, who had by then flown out of the country to attend his scheduled event there, returned to Chennai to explain his position but was picked up from the airport by a huge posse of police and remanded in custody.