LAHORE: Beaconhouse School System has lodged a complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Circle to investigate an “engineered hate campaign” against the institution on social media, alleging that the campaign was orchestrated and politically motivated.
A #BoycottBeaconhouse campaign has been trending on different social media websites labelling the school “enemy of the state” as pictures of a map in its textbook and an exam paper were extensively shared, accusing the school of “ideological and religious subversion”.
In a statement, Beaconhouse clarified its stance, claiming that the “hate campaign is not organic”. The school alleges the campaign was engineered and sponsored by a former employee of The Educators, a school that runs parallel to BSS, “who was terminated for physically assaulting his line manager”.
“This individual, however, does not alone have the capacity to sponsor a campaign of this magnitude. He has become a willing pawn in the hands of certain media individuals whose motives are still unclear.”
The statement noted: “The core issue in this campaign pertains to the highly regrettable but inadvertent misrepresentation of the Pakistan map in the textbooks of The Educators. The Educators has in the past acknowledged this human error and apologized to its parent body. Attempts have been underway to rectify it since 2015 when this was first brought to light.”
“All textbooks of The Educators have once again been proofread and the proposed drafts submitted to the Punjab Curriculum & Textbook Board (PCTB) in May 2018 for their official approval, which is now awaited.”
The school adds that a Cambridge O Level past exam paper for Pak Studies was “falsely attributed” to the school.
“This is, in fact, a Cambridge O Level exam for all Pakistani students. Why has Beaconhouse been singled out?”
It added that allegations of the school promoting an ‘anti-Pakistan, pro-West narrative’ are false as its spirit of patriotism and commitment to Pakistan is “deeply embedded in all Beaconhouse students, employees, and owners”.
