Bhubaneswar, Aug. 30: The Orissa government today asked striking high school teachers to start schools “immediately or face the music”.

Demanding 100 per cent grant-in-aid for the 1,983 high schools of Orissa, teachers of these schools have been striking work since August 1. Nearly three lakh students have been affected by the strike.

School and mass education minister Pratap Jena today said: “The teachers have no right to play with the future of students. If they fail to open schools immediately, financial grant to these schools will be stopped. The government will only consider their demands after they call off their agitation and resume teaching.”

At present, these 1,983 block-grant-high schools, which were set up by private entrepreneurs, get 60 per cent financial assistance from the state government. The teachers of these schools are demanding that the government bear the entire cost and provide 100 per cent assistance.

The agitation assumed alarming proportions after non-teaching staff joined it. The minister said teachers and employees had the right to launch an agitation but they had no right “to lock schools gates and deprive students of their right to education”. An expert committee, Jena said, had been constituted under the chairmanship of the state’s chief secretary to examine the issue. The committee had asked for more time to look into the teachers’ demands. “We have allowed the committee more time. As soon it submits the report, we will try to settle this issue. Fulfilling the demand will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 418 crore.”