Kendrapara, Feb. 12: The headmaster of a government-run upgraded primary school in the district was suspended today after officials of the schools and mass education department had found him drunk on the school premises during a surprise inspection yesterday.

The squad not only spotted the headmaster of Nurugaon Upgraded Nodal Primary School, Anjan Kumar Sahu, drunk, but also retrieved bottles of alchohol, some of them empty, from the school office.

"During inspection of the school at Sanabada-Gopalpur gram panchayat under Rajnagar tehsil, we found Sahu in an inebriated state. He was stammering and was unable to speak properly. Later, while conducting a search of his office, we found some Indian Made Foreign Liquor bottles. We came to know that the headmaster was an alcohol addict and was vitiating the school environs. Today, the offender was suspended as he infringed the service code and rules," said block education officer Raj Kishore Swain.

The department has received at least seven other complaints of alcoholic nuisance by teachers of government-run primary schools.

Last year, a government primary schoolteacher had been sacked in Rajnagar tehsil for such act of alcoholic nuisance. Besides, instances of teachers committing sexual assaults on girl students have also been reported in past months, severely denting the image of teaching fraternity.

"Those who are perpetrating crimes on students and attending schools drunk should be permanently axed from their jobs," said child rights activist Biraja Prasad Pati.

"Occurrence of such cases is few and far. So, it should not be construed that the teaching profession degenerated," said educator Bhagaban Jena.