BERHAMPUR: Residents of five villages under Balarampur panchayat in Ganjam’s Dharakote block staged dharna on Thursday demanding immediate appointment of teachers to the vacant posts in government upgraded high school at Usta.
The agitators, including students, locked the main gate of the school and staged protest in front of it. They alleged that the school, which has 404 students from Classes I to XII, is facing severe staff shortage. There are 192 students from Classes I to VIII, but only three teachers to teach them.
Similarly, there are 126 students in Classes IX and X, but only three teachers are available with none to teach Mathematics, Science and Hindi. While seven teachers are required for Classes I to VIII, only three are currently appointed, resulting in highly disorganised classroom activities, they alleged.
The protesters further claimed that Rs 50 lakh sanctioned earlier under the 5T initiative for school infrastructure development was misappropriated. The classrooms, boundary wall, and playground of the school remain incomplete despite funds being released for the purpose, they alleged.
School management committee president Manoj Kumar Swain and Balarampur sarpanch Gitanjali Malik said repeated complaints to the authorities concerned in this regard had gone unheeded, forcing villagers to resort to agitation.
After several hours of protest, in-charge headmaster of the school Harish Chandra Dalai informed the block education officer (BEO) about the situation. Subsequently, BEO Abhimanyu Sahu reached the school and assured the agitators that a teacher would be assigned for classes I to VIII from Friday.
“The district education officer has also promised to fill up the remaining vacant teacher posts for classes IX and X by the second week of the month,” Sahu said.
On receiving the assurances, the villagers opened the school gate and called off the protest. However, they warned that the agitation would resume if the issues were not resolved within 15 days.