'2 teachers for 8 classes' - Irate students lock school gate, stage protests in Odisha

Acute teachers’ shortage has triggered discontent among students of a primary school in Bolangir. Upset, they staged a sit-in agitation in front of Jamapadar Upper Primary School in Bibina panchayat under Saintala block after locking its gate on Monday. Guardians also joined the protest, demanding immediate appointment of teachers.  

As per reports, over a hundred students are in class 1 to 8 in the school. The disconcerting fact is that only two teachers are there to look after the teaching of the eight classes. Worse, one of them is managing official matters while the other finds it too difficult to manage things for 100 students in eight classes. At least two more teachers are required to manage the teaching requirements of the students to some extent, it is said. 

Speaking about the problems, a student of the school, Soumya Sagar said, "Teachers are not being appointed for our school. We are unable to study properly without teachers. Only two teachers are managing 8 classes. You can know what kind of problem we are going through. We are facing a lot of problems in our studies.”
 

Padma Dip, a guardian, expressed concerns over the teacher shortage and the future of the children. She lamented, “For 8 classes, the school has only two teachers. One of them often goes out for official work while the other teacher has been struggling to manage the teaching. You think, how one teacher can impart education to 100 students in all the 8 classes. We demand immediate appointment of the required number of teachers in the school.”

As for the issue, the cluster resources centre coordinator (CRCC), Manoj Kumar Sahu came out with an explanation, saying, “We had appointed a teacher, but he was later transferred on promotion.”

Sahu, however, admitted that the school requires more teachers and the block education officer (BEO) has written to the district education officer (DEO) to fill up the vacancies.