Sonaullah School in Jalpaiguri after Thursday?s incident. Picture by Biplab Basak

Siliguri/Balurghat, June 15: Classes were disrupted in two different schools of north Bengal over the past 48 hours. On one occasion, guardians were responsible for the disturbance, while on the other, a few students took it upon themselves to create a racket on the campus.

The first incident took place yesterday at Berole Free Primary School in the Kusmandi police station area of South Dinajpur, 70 km from Balurghat. The guardians there locked the main gate of the institution demanding that the headmaster and an assistant teacher first resolve their dispute, which has been hampering studies over the past few days.

The feud between headmaster Bibhas Das and assistant teacher Afzal Hossain came out in the open yesterday when Das lodged an FIR against Hossain with Kusmandi police.

According to the FIR, during a recent visit to Berole by assistant inspector of schools of the Kusmandi circle Ghulam Kibria, Das had brought Hossain?s irregular attendance to his notice. Afterwards Hossain, who is on leave, allegedly accosted Das on the streets and threatened him with dire consequences for complaining against him. The headmaster also claimed that the assistant teacher assaulted him.

Hossain, however, said: ?I only wanted to know from the headmaster if he had really lodged a complaint against me with the inspector. At that, he turned on me in anger. I did not do anything to him.?

Apurba Sen, the chairman of the district primary school council, said he had come to know about the school?s closure today. ?I have asked two assistant inspectors from Balurghat to go to there and have also alerted Kibria,? Sen said. He added that Kibria has been asked to talk to the guardians and see to it that the school starts functioning normally once again.

The other incident at Sonaullah School in Jalpaiguri today was over a different issue. Around 30 students of Classes IX and XI decided to put up a demonstration on the school campus, demanding that they be promoted to the next class despite failing in the final examination.

Some of them also locked the rooms of the school?s headmaster and assistant headmaster in their absence and rung the school bell repeatedly, fooling other students into believing that classes had been suspended for some reason.

While the protesting students talked about the ?sheer injustice? done to them ? they had apparently been confident of doing well in the exams until they saw the results ? the teachers dismissed the demand as ?unacceptable?.

Mohan Bose, chairman of Jalpaiguri Municipality, who rushed to the school after the incident, also said: ?Their demand (for promotion) is in no way rational. I had been to the school and discussed the matter with teachers and school committee members. The situation, however, has turned to normal now.?

A few constables from the Jalpaiguri Kotwali police station have been posted at the school.