| Address: Chandigarh, Chandigarh |
The raid conducted by representatives of People For Animals (PFA) at Sacred Heart School (Sector 26) on Tuesday has left city educationists fuming. While the PFA team claimed that the school has violated provisions of Wildlife Protection Act by preserving animal specimens in its laboratory, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) stated that preserving such specimens is part of the curriculum in schools.
Ridiculing the PFA move, CBSE Regional Director RJ Khanderao said, “It is mandatory for all schools to preserve certain species of animals in their labs. The Act has banned the dissection of animals and the possession of live animals. How will the teachers illustrate the contents of the theory without the specimens?”
Further, KBDAV School (Sector 7) Principal and CBSE Counselor Madhu Bahl said, “I am surprised to look at the claims of PFA regarding violations of the law. On one side, where CBSE has been specially conducting inspections in order to check whether the schools have made provisions of each of the animal specimens included in the syllabi, how can the school be blamed for meeting the requirements?”
PFA Wildlife Officer Saurav Gupta, however, contended that the raid was conducted after a tip-off received by their organisation regarding the possession of “prohibited” animals by the school. “The school has violated the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, which prohibits institutions from preserving these animals in their laboratories for research purposes,” alleged Gupta.
Countering this, Shivalik Public School (Sector 41) Director D S Bedi, “Such bars and objections, as raised by PFA, harm students the most. What happened at Sacred Heart on Tuesday has left all our schools upset. The Education Department must take serious note of the situation.”
On receiving a complaint from PFA, the police had accompanied its members to Sacred Heart School. The biology lab of the school was sealed and 31 specimens were recovered.
“The school has been specifically targetted as it follows a strict admission procedure. Many of the parents — who tried to by-pass rules — were turned away this year as well during entry class admissions,” said a teacher from a city school on condition of anonymity.
‘What authority does the PFA have to barge into any of our schools in this way? All schools, including the government schools, have stored these specimens of frogs, cobra and other species in their labs. Will they blame everyone then?’
R J Khanderao
CBSE Regional Director
We acted on PFA complaint: SSP
SSP Naunihal Singh said, “The PFA representatives had given us a complaint citing infringement of the Wildlife Protection Act by the school. So, on the basis of their complaint, we deputed a team of police officials to accompany the PFA representatives to look into the matter.”
What is PFA?
It is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit animal protection organisation dedicated to preventing intentional or unintentional harm to all animals in our community with a focus on dogs.
Why CBSE promoting crime against wild animals?, the UN affiliated OIPA chapter in India demanding that action should be taken against CBSE as well under section 120-B as co accused being an promoter of the crime.
- Naresh Kadyan,
Representative of OIPA in India / Founder Chairman, PFA Haryana,
www.oipa.org
Aug 13, 2020
Complaint marked as Resolved ![Central Board of Secondary Education [CBSE] Logo](/thumb.php?bname=1&src=cbse.jpg&wmax=280&hmax=280&quality=90&nocrop=1 "Central Board of Secondary Education [CBSE] Logo")
CBSE — no confirmation regarding revaluation
i have given application regarding revaluation of my 12th class papers of four subjects but till now no confirmation has been given.. kindly answer me as soon as possible.