Sambalpur, June 27: Residents of Bhatpura in Kuchinda sub-division of Sambalpur district, 80km from here, locked up the upper primary school of the village today demanding immediate appointment of regular teachers .

“There are seven classes with more than 140 students in the school. However, the school is running with just three teachers. There is no regular headmaster in the school since long. There is one regular teacher and two sikshya sahayaks (para teachers). There should be at least six teachers in the school. We have demanded the appointment of regular teachers. We will not call off our agitation till the authorities resolve the problem,” said Kirtan Kisan, chairman of the school.

“Bhatpura upper primary school is one of the oldest schools in Jamankira block of Kuchinda sub-division. But because of the apathy of the concerned authorities, the school is being victimised, ” said Tikan Sahu, a local resident.

“We had appraised the authorities about the problem of the school but found them callous to our concern,” he said. “There were six teachers in the school. But after the retirement of the headmaster, the authorities did not even bother to appoint a regular headmaster here. Later, two teachers were transferred from the school this year. Despite the acute shortage of teachers in the school, the authorities deputed another teacher to another school. This negligence of the authorities has forced us to resort to an agitation,” said Prabhat Behera, a local resident. “A total of 384 teachers have been transferred this year in Kuchinda education district. Our school has become the victim of this decision of the authorities. The authorities have also violated the guidelines of transfer prepared by the government. According to the guidelines, sikshya sahayaks (para teachers) should be posted in their respective gram panchayats. But in Kuchinda education district, some sikshya sahayaks have been transferred to schools more than 50km away from their panchayats,” he said.

However, Kuchinda’s district inspector of schools Ashok Patel, who was initially unaware about the agitation, said: “There are 30 vacancies in the Jamankira block. We are trying to resolve the problems of the schools in the block. I will apprise the collector about the problem.”