Saudi Minister Wants Chinese Wall between Girls and Boys in Schools.

Ashraf K.M

Riyadh : June 12, 2002 The Saudi Minister of Education Muhammad Al-Rasheed has instructed all international and foreign schools in the Kingdom not to allow mixing of boys and girls in the classes. 'Children of the two sexes should be strictly segregated in separate areas. The schools have to respect the Islamic customs and traditions. The ministry's directives also stipulate that the schools should give religious and Arabic language lessons to Muslim students. The schools should also remove any anti-Islamic references in textbooks, he said.

According to reliable sources, 'immoral activity" involving students or teachers in some of the Asian expatriate schools needs to be controlled . Look at the following examples - the staff of a leading Indian school was sacked overnight because he was found doing dirty things with a student, who was taking private tuition in the school premises itself. The culprit from North India was found guilty and the school management sacked him on the spot.This may be an isolated incident, but speaks volume about a problem that needs to be addressed properly.

Another revelation about 'immoral activity' in an Indian school occurred when the water sanitation system was totally blocked. When the pipeline through which waste water was flowing got blocked, dirty water started flowing all around, creating bad odour and dirty environment in the school premises. Despite serious efforts to clear the water pipeline, waste water was not going through it. Ultimately when the plumber was called in, he opened the pipeline to see what was blocking the smooth water flow through the pipeline. To his surprise, he found the water pipeline filled with rubber contraceptives of different sizes deposited through the closets. Then only the school authorities realized that immoral activity among a section of students was going on.

Talk to any shopkeepers near some of the Indian schools and it is not very difficult to learn that contraceptives are one of the fast moving products sold there. It is better that if the authorities cannot have regular monitoring, grown up girls and boys should be taught separately. Parents, especially of grown up girls, should be careful about their children and don't leave them alone without much controls. (keralamonitor.com)