Mangaluru: After Sri Ram Sena raid, St Thomas School suspends Arabic class

Mangaluru, Aug 6: A week after Sri Ram Sena activists raided the St Thomas Aided Higher Primary School at Bondanthila in the outskirts of the city, the management of the school has decided to suspend the optional Arabic language teaching class.

The decision comes after the school management convened a meeting of village elders and parents on Friday in the wake of increased pressure by the Hindutva groups to stop the Arabic class.

The Sri Ram Sena had threatened to hold protests if the school continued to hold Arabic classes. The group, however, has not raised objection to teaching of other foreign languages like French and German.

On July 30 a group of around 40 miscreants belonging to Sri Ram Sena barged into the school while the Arabic teaching was going on in a classroom. Even though the students clarified that no one forced them to learn Arabic, the intruders threatened the Arabic teacher and snatched books from the students.

Following a complaint from the school headmaster Mangaluru Rural Police has registered cases of trespass and rioting against the Sri Ram Sena activists. Around 20 miscreants were taken into custody after the incident.

According to Melwyn Braggs, the headmaster of the School, they had been teaching German, French and Arabic to students for the last few years. This year, parents had, during the parent-teacher meeting, said they did not want French and German but wanted Arabic and karate classes to continue.

While karate is taught on Friday, Arabic classes are held on Saturday, and the school management had made arrangements for teachers to teach these subjects.

Braggs, rubbished the allegations of forcibly teaching Arabic students and said that attendance to these classes was purely voluntary. Only about 40 of the 59 students of classes 6 and 7 were attending the Arabic class, he said.

Also Read:

Mangaluru: 16 Sri Ram Sena activists arrested for school raid

Hindutva activists raid St Thomas school over Arabic class, videograph girls

Arabic class may produce terrorists; will hold protest at churches: Sri Ram Sena

Comments

As A.Mangalore (4) said thousands of hindus working in Gulf?
What will happen if they learn Arabic in Gulf ... Question : WILL they all Become Terrorist?
When your dirty tactics doesnt work to fool people, then your plan will be dumb, you all will be in stupidity... LOOKS VERY STUPID.

Dont play with Divine religion, U will be looked after by your CREATOR on your mischief and ALLAH is the best of Planner... All your plans are flopping and now U guys look VERY STUPID in your claim.
Divine religion will be spread despite your evil agenda.
Try whatever ways
Try whatever wealth
Try whatever manpower
Try whatever energy U have. U will have to bow down to the divine religion...
Please read atleast one time in your life time the DIVINE SCRIPTURE (The QURAN) & Know who is enemy of MANKIND? is it MUSLIMs or those put hatred in the people . U will get a CLEAR answer to those who are intellect in searching for the TRUE GOD.

good finally school accepted whatever they are doing is totally wrong.

what was the need of teaching arabic in school, if students was that much interested to learn they could learn from madrasa.

well done!! this s how we deal with schools,

Now I am worried that there are thousands of Hindus from our state are working in the gulf state where the official language and spoken language is Arabic. Thousands of hindu students are also going here for schools and there is a option of learning Arabic also in the schools.
Now these hate mongers may give order for all the hindus to leave the job of Arabic countries and come back to India.

No problem, Muslim students will learn Arabic at home/Madrasa......Hindus are not at all interested.... But the christans are the losers

Government is helpless in front of Hindu extremist group. This is encouraging to chaddi group.
Unless sleeping government start to take stringiest action against this chaddis & public United against social enemies good citizen faces issues. Only jobless uneducated people get temporary victory over land.

But don't forget every human being accounted for their deeds on the earth none is spared regardless his strength, power on earth.

I thank the school management and headmaster for arranging Arabic language classes to interested students including my son. Now suspending Arabic class is also a wise decision in the wake of threats from Sri Ram Sena and other uneducated hatemonger groups.

I, as a parent of one of the students of the school request the police to book all those who raided the school under Goonda Act and break their legs in custody.

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Fee Hike in Private School across Coastal Karnataka Raises Concerns among Parents

News Network

March 15,2025

Mangaluru: Parents in coastal Karnataka are facing a significant financial burden as private schools across the region have implemented a sharp 20% or higher fee hike for the new academic year. This marks a drastic increase compared to the 6-15% annual hikes over the past four years. Schools justify the rise by citing increased teacher salaries and rising operational costs.

A parent from a CBSE school in Moodbidri reported that last year, his child's school fee was Rs 23,000, excluding transport and books. This year, it has jumped to Rs 29,000. "Fees for all classes in our school have been hiked by Rs 6,000," he shared.

Similarly, Jean D'Souza, whose two children study at an ICSE school in Mangaluru, said the school has increased fees by Rs 5,000 this year, from Rs 46,000 to Rs 51,000. Another parent from an ICSE school on the outskirts of the city reported a 20% hike and urged the government to intervene and regulate school fee increases.

Additional Costs Add to Parents’ Burden

Parents highlighted that beyond tuition fees, they also bear expenses for transport, uniforms, and books. Monthly transport fees range between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500, while book costs amount to Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per child annually. However, some relief comes from schools allowing fee payments in installments. "Many schools permit two to four installments, which helps ease the financial strain for parents," said a school management representative.

Schools Defend the Fee Hike

A school principal explained the reasons behind the steep fee increase this year. "Most schools refrained from major fee hikes after the pandemic. However, teacher salary demands have increased, and with a shortage of trained educators, retaining them is difficult without annual pay raises," he said.

Other rising costs include electricity, water, building maintenance, government fees, and general operational expenses. School managements argue that these factors make the fee hike necessary to sustain quality education.

While parents express frustration over the rising costs, the debate over striking a balance between affordability and sustaining quality education continues. Many now call for government intervention to regulate private school fee structures, ensuring that education remains accessible to all families.

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