JAGATSINGHPUR: Protesting the decision of the School and Mass Education department to merge schools with low strength, students and guardians have intensified their week-long agitation in front of various block education offices across Jagatsinghpur district.
Sources said as many as 49 primary schools were merged with nearby schools after educational institutions resumed operations in the district this year. This has fuelled resentment among guardians who are unwilling to send their children to other schools distant from their villages. Students too are unhappy amid the uncertainty that followed the school consolidation process.
In Nuasasan primary school under Kujang block, sources said, there were around 50 students three years back. But following the merger decision, school authorities allegedly stopped admission of local students deliberately to reduce the strength gradually. Moreover, the school is situated more than two km from the nearby Agapal primary school but officials have shown that it is 1 km away, the villagers alleged as they protested outside the block education office.
Similarly, local residents opposed the merger of Patenigaon primary school with Radhanagar primary school in Gualipur panchayat under Raghunathpur block alleging that the consolidation is arbitrary.
Though block education officer (BEO) Bijay Swain admitted that student strength was 35 in Patenigaon primary school, he said, “I have no role in the school merger decision. But I have forwarded the concerns of people to higher authorities for due consideration.”
In Biridi, villagers of Batimira staged a dharna and detained a cluster resource centre coordinator (CRCC) while protesting the merger of the local primary school with Rajkrushna upper primary (UP) school of Nuagaon village which is over 2 km away.
As per reports of the district project office of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, nearly 194 primary and UP schools of Jagatsinghpur district will be closed following merger with nearby schools. Out of these, 142 schools were consolidated by the end of 2019-2020. The remaining 52 schools are slated to be consolidated this year of which 49 have already been merged. District education officer Niranjan Behera was unavailable for comment on the issue.