KENDRAPARA: An upper primary school in Bharatpur village of Kendrapara district has been left without a single teacher for over a week forcing students to skip classes.
The 36-year-old aided school located at a distance of 12 km from Kendrapada town had been functioning with a lone teacher untill his retirement on March 31.
No new teacher has been appointed yet which has affected the education of the students. With around 60 students five years ago, the school’s strength had drastically declined in recent years due to non-appointment of teachers.
Locals have alleged that despite repeated pleas by the villagers to the district education officer and the administration to appoint teachers in the school, no action has been taken. A guardian of a class VII student Sauri Sethi (38) said, “It is shocking to know that this school has been running without a teacher for more than a week. The school needs at least three teachers. School had two teachers since 2021,” he said.
In 2021 Brajakishor Lenka, one of the teachers of the school retired after which Bichitra Kumar Panda was working as the lone teacher till his retirement.
Contacted, the district education officer (DEO) Basant Kumar Nayak said, “The school is an aided school and will be merged with a nearby government high school soon. At present we have no plan to appoint any teacher in this school.”