A female teacher of a private school in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur town, about 300 kilometres from Lucknow, was sacked after she cited 'Pakistan' as an example of Noun while taking an online class.
The teacher had allegedly posted examples such as ''Pakistan is our motherland'' and ''I will join Pakistan Army''. Another post was ''Rashid Minhas (A Pak air force pilot) was a brave soldier''.
According to the sources, all these posts were made by the teacher on a WhatsApp group of around 40 students of fourth standard while teaching them about Nouns.
The matter snowballed into a huge controversy after some parents saw the posts and lodged a strong protest with the school. The school management suspended the teacher and sought an explanation from her.
Sources said that the teacher pleaded innocence and said that she merely ''copy-pasted'' the examples without paying much attention to the meanings.
''I am a true patriot....it was a mistake...I did not do it deliberately,'' she said in her reply to the school management. She also said that she had immediately clarified in the group that she in fact meant 'India' but owing to 'cut-paste' she inadvertently mentioned Pakistan. She also sought forgiveness for the mistake.
She was, however, sacked on Monday. The teacher had reportedly slipped into depression after the incident.
The parents demanded that the teacher be booked on charges of sedition and arrested. No formal complaint had so far been lodged with the police in this regard, sources said.