Pattani: About 50 parents and children yesterday urged the Pattani Provincial Islamic committee to look into complaints about verbal abuse being directed at students wearing religious clothing to school.
Waedueramae Mamingji, the committee chairman, said Muslim students at Anuban Pattani school claimed they were being put under pressure from people who disagreed with the school’s decision to scrap a ban on religious clothes.
Citing the complaints, he said senior education officials were among those who resorted to verbal abuse to pressure Muslim students not to wear headscarves and other religious clothing to school.
Mr Waedueramae said he thought the controversy surrounding the ban was over until the parents and their children told him about the verbal abuse.
Tension flared last month when a group of parents were invited to the school and informed of the ban on Islamic headscarves.
The school claimed the ban was imposed by the school board because the school is located within a Buddhist temple compound. However, those who disagreed insisted the Education Ministry’s uniform regulations allow students to wear religious clothes.
After education permanent secretary Karun Sakulpradit and Boonrak Yodpetch, secretary-general of the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) intervened, Anuban Pattani school backed down and lifted the ban.
Mr Waedueramae said he would look into the complaints and bring them before relevant authorities before tensions could escalate again.
A Muslim student said yesterday she and others were left feeling hurt when a senior education official told them that their demand to wear religious clothing to school had sparked a row and caused trouble for others.
She said the education official also told them to remove their headscarves but none of the students complied.
“We feel sad and feel like we are being pressured,” she said.
One of the parents said yesterday that education authorities should look into the matter because the students were startled and left scared by such remarks.
“The parents were left feeling angry about this when the children said they were being put under pressure by the school to not wear religious clothes. So we came to ask him [Mr Waedueramae] to look into the issue,” said the parent who did not wish to be named.