The Hijab row continues to grow in Karnataka amid class 10th exams. In Karnataka’s Gadag district, seven teachers were suspended on Monday because they allowed girl students wearing Hijab to appear for the exams.
A local deputy director of public instruction, Basavalingappa GM said, “On Monday, these teachers who were deployed as exam invigilators had allowed Muslim students to wear head scarf despite clear orders from the government. After some electronic media outlets reported about the incident, we suspended them for violating the order.”
Besides seven teachers, two centre superintendents of the CS Boys High School and CS Girls High School in Gadag city.
The Hijab ban in educational institutions in Karnataka has led to absenteeism during 10th grade board examination. For the first language exam on Monday, 8,69,399 students had enrolled themselves. Out of that, 20,994 were absent due to the hijab ban. On Wednesday, the absentee number increased by 1,069 during the second language exam. 8,68,206 students had enrolled themselves for this exam and 22,063 were absent.
On March 15, Karnataka High Court had upheld the state government’s decision to ban Hijab in educational institutions, noting that Hijab was not part of the essential religious practice in the Islamic faith.
