Pray, What Wrong Did I Do, Asks Atheist Teacher

[Rumi_phytagoras]

[img]http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01569/31th-ALOK-Teach_01_1569404e.jpg[/img]

[color=#3B3A39][font=Georgia,]
When all in his school fold their hands during prayer, Sanjay Salve keeps his hands firmly behind his back. The 41-year-old English teacher in Nashik is fighting the management’s imposition of prayers during school hours. “Only the national anthem should be played in school,” he says.[/font][/color][color=#3B3A39][font=Georgia,]
Mr. Salve has paid a price for his defiance. Though eligible for a higher pay grade since 2008 — the year after his revolt — he has been denied the same for ‘indiscipline.’ The management of this State-funded school also punished Mr. Salve by sullying his 2008-09 Confidential Report. The same management gave him excellent CRs in the preceding 12 years. “And fellow teachers with whom I once had cordial relations now avoid me,” he says.[/font][/color][color=#3B3A39][font=Georgia,]
Ironically, Mr. Salve works at the Savitribai Phule Secondary School, named after one of Maharashtra’s greatest 19th Century social reformers. Savitribai was the first woman teacher in the first women’s school and founded one for girls from the marginalised castes. Mr. Salve is an assistant teacher at the school run by the Mahatma Phule Samaj Shikshan Sanstha. Of nearly 1,600 students here, almost 60 per cent are either OBCs or Dalits. Around 35 per cent are Muslims. Mr. Salve is a Dalit who embraced Buddhism.[/font][/color][color=#3B3A39][font=Georgia,]
The school management is overwhelmingly OBC.[/font][/color][color=#3B3A39][font=Georgia,]
Mr. Salve, who joined the school in 1996, says “the national anthem can instil more values in students. In any case, compulsory prayer is contrary to Article 28 (3) of the Constitution. Nor is there scope for it in the Maharashtra Secondary School Code.”[/font][/color][color=#3B3A39][font=Georgia,]
He has sought redress from the Bombay High Court. The next hearing in the case — whose outcome could seriously impact the debate over religious preaching and prayer in schools — is on September 6.[/font][/color][color=#3B3A39][font=Georgia,]
The son of poor parents who never finished school, Mr. Salve is a B.A. B.Ed. His wife is completing an M.Phil. Savitribai Phule would have been proud of them. The school isn’t.[/font][/color]

[chandrabhai7]

Kaun hey thu
[img]http://i.imgflip.com/z31m.gif[/img]

[paampachak]

Same should apply to schools of all religions be it madarasas or missionary schools

[cherlapalli_jailer]

emito

taagindi digaka chastunte ...

antha ayyomayam,

[Rumi_phytagoras]

[quote name='arunachalam' timestamp='1378220423' post='1304196699']
Same should apply to schools of all religions be it madarasas or missionary schools
[/quote]

[bottu_seenu]

iyyala kotha work nerchukunna - sullying [img]http://i56.tinypic.com/2w2r5gm.jpg[/img]

[chandrabhai7]

[quote name='Slim-Shady' timestamp='1378220511' post='1304196708']
iyyala kotha work nerchukunna - sullying [img]http://i56.tinypic.com/2w2r5gm.jpg[/img]
[/quote]

Wat abt vattakaying man


[img]http://i.imgflip.com/z31m.gif[/img]