Police try to control a mob of teachers in front of the chief minister’s residence in Bhubaneswar on Monday

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 26: Scarred by Monday’s lathicharge, thousands of teachers of unaided secondary schools in Orissa today tendered their resignation en masse.

“As many as 25,000 teachers have sent resignations. We’ve addressed it to the chief secretary,” said Teachers’ Association president Prashant Mohapatra.

This would mean the closure of about 662 schools receiving block grants. The teachers have also threatened closure of about 2,000 schools.

“Classes will be stopped. We will not run classes from Thursday,” said Mohapatra.

Yesterday the agitating teachers had protested by squatting with brooms in hand outside the homes of state school and mass education minister Pratap Jena and other legislators. However, they decided to discontinue the agitation for a week.

“The lathicharge left many injured and most teachers wanted to rest,” he said. “But we’ll continue our struggle.”

The Naveen Patnaik government came under severe criticism in the Assembly on Tuesday for the police lathicharge on agitating high school teachers.

Several teachers’ organisations also condemned the police action against the teachers and said the state ought to deal with the matter more sympathetically.

Thousands of teachers holding a protest rally in the city on Monday were beaten up while trying to break the police cordon to reach the chief minister’s residence.

At least 80 teachers were injured in the incident and several were arrested. “Even injured teachers who were undergoing treatment at the Capital Hospital were booked. They were not treated well while in custody,” alleged Mohapatra. ‘

Teachers of 662 schools have been seeking abolition of block grant system and asking for 100 per cent grant in aid.