JAGATSINGHPUR: Protesting suspension of a teacher, students and their guardians locked Gopaljew Vidyapeeth at Gajrajpur in Naugaon block and staged dharna on Thursday. Alleging that suspension of the teacher, Umakant Acharya, was illegal, the students demanded his immediate reinstatement in the school.
Sources said District Education Officer (DEO) Prativa Manjari Das made a surprise visit to the school on Wednesday and found that students were not being taught according to the prescribed lesson plan. Moreover, teachers were found attending school without adhering to the dress code.
As assistant teacher Acharya had not prepared the lesson plans and was not in proper dress code, the DEO suspended him. Acharya allegedly also misbehaved with Das while the latter was inquiring about the quality of education in the school. After his suspension, Acharya was deputed to Kundeswar Upper Primary School.
Sources said 95 students are enrolled in Gopaljew Vidyapeeth which has five teachers. The School and Mass Education department has been imparting training to teachers on Ujjwal, Utthan and Utkarsh skill development programmes for students to assess their learning capacity. However, the teachers of Gopaljew Vidyapeeth were not implementing the programmes properly in the school.
The agitating students, on the other hand, said out of the five teachers of the school, four had not prepared the lesson plan. “Suspension of one teacher by leaving out the other four is biased and illegal. Acharya should be reinstated in the school immediately,” they said.
Naugoan BEO Ganeswer Sethi rushed to the protest site and held discussions with the agitators. He gave assurance to post another teacher in place of Acharya following which the students called off their stir.