Kovai school puts up 'Christians only' notice for LKG admission, withdraws it after CEO probe

A popular school in Coimbatore put up a notice for LKG admissions -- except with a rider. ‘LKG Application Only for Christian students will be distributed on 02.03.2019', the notice put up on Friday by Nirmala Matha Convent School in Kuniyamuthur said, sparking massive outrage among parents. Coimbatore Chief Educational Officer Ayyannan visited the school on Saturday and conducted an inquiry.

Now, the school has removed the notice and apologised -- claiming they were not intending to limit admissions to one community, but did not want overcrowding at the school for application forms as board exams were underway.

The notice set off massive outrage among the parents, general public, and on social media, with a demand for an investigation to be conducted into the school’s policy.

Speaking to reporters after the inquiry, CEO Ayyannan said that the admission process undertaken by the school for the past three years was verified by him. “They said that in order to prevent excess crowds at the admission counter, such a notice was given, and that it was not based on any religious preferences. They also said that they would provide application forms to everyone in the days to come,” he said.

Adding that the school authorities expressed regret and gave an apology letter to him, the CEO said that the investigation report and the letter will be forwarded to the Tamil Nadu Minister for School Education.

The Principal of the school also met the media and said, “Since public exams are going on, we wanted to avoid overcrowding as the campus cannot deal with it. That is why we put up such a notification. The notification has been taken off now. In our school, students from all religions are enrolled.”

Following the inquiry, the school took off the earlier notice and put up another notice in its place which said: ‘Kindly ignore the previous circular regarding LKG applications. Due to public examinations and administrative reasons, LKG applications for all the candidates will be issued on March 30th, Saturday.’

(With inputs from Sudhakar Balasundaram)