Student's suicide: School illegal, wards told to shift

HYDERABAD: Three weeks after the death of Mirza Salman Baig, a class 9 student of Ifham Talent School in Hafeez Baba Nagar, the department of education revealed that the school is unrecognized from classes 8 to 10.Deputy Educational Officer (DEO), Bandlaguda, has asked parents to shift their wards immediately to another recognized schools and said that seeking admission in this school is against the rule.“All the parents are hereby informed that the Ifham Talent School, Hyderabad is unrecognized from classes 8 to 10 and seeking admission is against rules. Hence you are requested to enroll your wards in recognized school from class 8th to 10th with immediate effect,“ the notice which was pasted on the walls of the school, read. After receiving the complaint, the DEO along with the Deputy Inspector of Schools visited the school on January 17 and in their inquiry report said that Salman had paid the school fees on January 3, a day before ending his own life. “As per the staff declaration, the management and teachers of the school never forced and insisted any student of the school to pay the fees and his family is financially stable. The staff also said that Salman Baig had a love affair outside the school,“ the report read. In the same report it was mentioned that school is recognized only from class I to class 7, but it was found that the school was running classes up to class 10.On January 4, Salman (16) hanged himself from a ceiling fan after returning home from school. His family alleged that he was humiliated by the school's management for not paying fees. “The principal humiliated my brother by pulling his pants down and beating him publicly . He was being threatened by the management for three or four days to clear dues before he took the extreme step,“ said Salman's brother Basheer.“We never knew that school is unrecognized from VIII to X classes. Only after my brother's death, this fact has come to light and now all we want is justice. We don't want any other child to go through the same ordeal as my brother,“ he added.