Odisha students lock up school gate, sit on dharna over shortage of teachers

Students of Pandua Government Upper Primary School under Keonjhar’s Ghasipura block locked up the school gate on Friday and sat on dharna in front of it over the shortage of teachers in the school.

As per reports, there are only three teachers in the school for a student strength of 193. It is alleged that students are lagging behind in studies because there are insufficient teachers in the school.

“For 193 students we have only three teachers in our school. Students have gotten undisciplined because of this. That is why we have sat on a Dharna. We demand more teachers,” said a protesting student.

School Chairman, Bibhuti Bhusan Behera said, “We have complained to the BEO sir many times but no steps were taken to appoint teachers in our school. Two months ago, the BEO had assured us to fill up vacant teacher positions in the school within 15 days, but nothing has happened till now.”

The Block Education Officer (BEO) was unavailable for comments on this matter.

In a similar incident, students of Kangeila Janata Upper Primary School under Kamakhyanagar block in Dhenkanal district locked up the school gate on Nov 13 and launched a sit-in protest, demanding immediate appointment of teachers.

Teacher shortage continues to plague learning in many schools in Odisha. Some schools do not have regular teachers while others are run with deputed and guest ones.

As per reports, there are 56,000 primary and upper primary schools and 7,000 high schools in the state. As many as 24,000 teaching posts are lying vacant in primary and UP schools while 15,000 are yet to be filled up in high schools.