Education secretary Brij Lal punishes Labasa school principal who confronted him & via High Court over awarding of ZEROs to his students in Biology exams - Principal removed to Education Office, Labasa

VINDICTIVENESS and bullying has become the hallmark of those who rode to power on the knob of Frank Bainimarama's guns. One such bully boy is the online internet PhD holder Brij Lal, the permanent secretary for Education.

We may recall the story where eleven Labasa Sangam College students were awarded zero marks in their biology exams. In December Brij Lal was chief guest at the school's annual prize giving day. The principal of the school, Subhas Chandra Singh, gave a speech in which he questioned the decision to award his students zero marks.

The students were also successful in obtaining a judicial review from the Fiji High Court.

Well, both the speech and the court decision did not go down well with Brij Lal. The court ruling was made on 17 January 2014 and three days later, on the 20th, the day schools opened in Fiji, Singh went to Education Office to find out why another principal had been sent to replace him.

He was informed that he had been removed on the instructions of Brij Lal. The letter was handed to him by Kolinio Takali, the Principal Education Officer, Macuata, and titled "Temporary Attachment": "As instructed by Permanent Secretary please be advised that you are to be temporarily attached at Labasa Education office."

Sources inside the Labasa Education Office told Fijileaks that vindictive Brij Lal even asked Satya Nand Shandil, the Divisional Education Officer Northern (in charge of Northern Education Office)  to write a negative report against principal Singh but he refused. Singh, after all, is not only a school principal but is also a respectable pillar of society, and officiates as a pandit.

To date, Singh has not been given any reason for his removal. He has been replaced by Kamlesh Prasad who used to be at Muslim College in Labasa, and a regime sympathizer. He is now acting principal.

One villager said of Singh: "This poor guy is reporting at Education Office like a prisoner."

See earlier story: http://www.fijileaks.com/2/post/2014/01/eleven-labasa-sangam-college-seventh-formers-granted-judicial-review-leave-to-challenge-education-ministry-ps-brij-lals-decision-to-award-zero-marks-to-them-in-biology-exams.html