Tribal school students on strike protesting staff crunch

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KalingaTV News Network

EMRS strikeKeonjhar: Making the tall claims of government on tribal education look hollow, the students of the Ekalavya Model Residential School (EMRS) in Ranki here held a sit-in protest on Friday demanding immediate filling up of posts lying vacant in the institution. The agitating students also accused the district administration of gross apathy in addressing their demand.

According to reports, hundreds of students of the EMRS from Standard VI to XII boycotted classes and protested inside the school premises demanding a solution to the staff crunch. The agitating students have threatened not to attend school till the district administration looked into the matter.

“We have taken the issue of staff crunch to the district Collector, Chief Minister and Prime Minister time and again, but all our concerns seem to have fallen on deaf ears. There is a growing feeling among the students that the administration is apathetic towards us as we are tribals,” said Akshaya Kumar Munda, an agitating student. “Our protest would continue till the district Collector addresses the issue and holds talks with us on the issue,” he added.

Speaking in unison with the students, Sadhu Charan Giri, a Mathematics teacher in the school, said the demands of the students were legitimate as the school had an acute staff shortage in various subjects.

Giri, who is one of the two teachers engaged in the +2 classes of the institution, said; “There are only two teachers in the school for +2 students—one to teach Mathematics and the other to teach Chemistry—which tells the whole story.” “Vacancies exist in English, Botany, Zoology, Physics and IT subjects,” he added.

Notably, in a major discrepancy the new employment notification of the school which was published recently sought applications for the IT teacher only compelling the students to take to the route of protest.

 

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