Bandra school expulsions raise a storm

Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: June 28, 2003
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=47647

Introduction: The administrator of Saint Andrew's admitted that most of the students asked to leave the school were Muslim. "But then, 80 per cent of our students are Muslims," he said

A decision by Bandra's St Andrew's High School to ask 70 students to leave has stirred up a storm. School authorities on Friday explained that the students were expelled for their poor academic performance.
 
But because many of these students are Muslim, local politicians have alleged that the move reeks of communal bias. "It's a conscious effort by the school to get rid of Muslim students," said a local politician, requesting anonymity.
 
He contended that the school authorities believe that Muslim students aren't academically oriented and give the school a bad image.Fr Rodney Esperance, the administrator of St Andrew's, admitted that the majority of the students asked to leave the school were Muslim. "But then, 80 per cent of our students are Muslims," he said.
 
Fr Esperance maintained that certain local politicians were unfairly attempting to give the routine administrative exercise a communal colour. "We are not targeting any particular community," he said. "The list of students asked to leave the school also includes the names of Christian and Hindu students."
 
Most of the students asked to leave the 76-year-old institution have failed the same class twice, so the school's rules require them to leave, Fr Esperance said.
 
St Andrew's School is one of the oldest schools in Bandra. But over the years, it has lost a number of students to the newer local schools like Bombay Scottish, Arya Vidya Mandir and the American School, a school official said. "Most of our students cannot afford the more expensive schools," this official said.
 
"They belong to economically backward and non-English speaking families and find it difficult to cope with the studies in the higher classes."
 
But local MLA Baba Siddiqui contended that instead of expelling poor students, the school should try to improve their performance. "If the school is going to throw out these poor students where will they go?" he asked.
 
School authorities said students who fared poorly were asked to leave the school every year. "Unfortunately, this year the number is higher than in other years," Fr Esperance said. Educationists said that many schools students who had failed their exams, especially in standards eight and nine, had been asked to leave to ensure the school's respectable performance in the tenth standard board exam.
 

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