Several government school teachers and education experts on Thursday criticised Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar for his remarks that government schools students were becoming Naxals and demanded an apology from the spiritual guru.
Several prominent persons who have studied in government schools and are currently in top positions in their respective fields also protested on social networking sites like Facebook.
Sri Sri Ravishankar was taking part in the 25th anniversary celebrations of a private school in Jaipur on Wednesday when he remarked that students of government schools took up Naxalism and led a life of violence.
Prince Gajendra Babu of Tamil Nadu platform for public schools said that Ravishankar’s comments were rubbish. “Many important bureaucrats and decisions-makers in the country are products of government schools. They take part in nation-building activities.
There is a sustained campaign to damage the image of government schools and Ravishankar is the mouth-piece of the campaign,” he said, adding that while many private schools were working as money-making machines, only government schools worked for the upliftment of society.
Stating that he was proud to be a government school product, well-known art critic Ms V.R. Devika, said, “I studied in a government school.
Ravishankar did not understand what he was talking about. Young people become Naxals because of inequalities and forceful evictions and unfriendly policies and not because of education. His statement was irresponsible,” she said.