Class X girls forced to remove hijab during board exam in Gujarat, centre admin sacked

SURAT/BHARUCH: The education department on Thursday removed the board exam centre administrator of a school in Ankleshwar town after several girls taking the Class 10 exam were asked to remove their hijab in the classroom.
The incident in Lions School sparked protests by parents who termed the administrator's action as discriminatory and submitted a complaint to the district education officer (DEO).Parents approached the school management, education department, collector and police.
DEO Swati Raol removed the administrator Ila Suratiya who is also the principal of the school.
"I have seen the CCTV footage and the parents also submitted an application in this regard. I have ordered an inquiry into the incident and started the process of changing the exam centre administrator because I found merit in the complaint. There are no specific instructions or guidelines from the board about the attire to be worn during exams," said Raol.
The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) has stated that there are no specific rules about the clothes worn by the examinees, and they can appear for the exam in any "decent" attire.
As per the rules, it is compulsory to have CCTV recording of every classroom, where students write their exam papers. According to the parents, one such CCTV footage showed women supervisors asking two girls to remove their hijabs.
Naved Malik, the father of one of the girls, said: "Around 20 girls were forced to remove their hijabs. My daughter cried a lot after coming home. If the administrators wanted to check the identities, they should have done it at the entry into the centre. The lady administrator went into the class and asked the girls to remove hijabs and submitted them in the office."
When confronted by the parents, Suratiya told them that she did so as their faces were not visible clearly in the CCTV recording. "As per the rules, the faces of all the students must be clear in the video recording. That's why we had asked the girls to remove their scarves before the exam so that we don't have to disturb them when they are writing the paper and others don't get disturbed," Suratiya said.
Exam Director of the GSHSEB, M K Raval, said, "There are no specific rules about clothes to be worn during exams. Any woman supervisor can check the identity of a female student ahead of the exam by matching her face with the photo on the receipt," Raval said.