No radicalisation of kids: MM Akbar

Kochi: A few days after the cops registered an FIR against the Peace School in Kochi, some videos surfaced on the social media saying that the police and vested interests were spreading lies against the school.

M.M. Akbar, managing director of Peace Schools, in an interview posted on Facebook, dismissed the reports that his schools were teaching objectionable content. He claimed that the schools were using textbooks and materials available in the market. "We have not prepared our own teaching material. We are following the NCERT syllabus," he said in the video. "We used the current textbooks a few months ago and, in fact, we had asked our teachers not to teach the controversial lesson/activity dealing with conversion of a child after we found the same objectionable," he said.

He denied that his school was engaged in radicalisation of kids and added that action should be taken against the publishers of the books and not schools.

In another video, Deepa Santhosh, who claims to be a teacher for the past three years at the Peace School, Kochi, defended the school. "We are following the NCERT syllabus. During the last three years, I never had a bad experience. There is no pressure on us, we can follow our own customs and religious beliefs. I am sure all the teachers will tell the same," she added.

According to her, the future of the children studying in the school is at stake. Those who are playing behind the scenes should understand that the life of students is affected by the false agendas, she said.

Meanwhile, BJP state leadership has asked the government to close down the schools run by Peace Educational Foundation. The party accused the schools as breeding centres of terrorism.