Kendrapara: Protesting against the callous attitude of the district administration in appointing teachers for running the school and in taking step to restart MDM programme, Dalit students of the government-run Sanamanitia Primary School staged a protest in front of the Collector’s office with their guardians, school managing committee members and local PRI members.
The students demanded that the administration should take steps for appointing teachers and ensure that MDM is provided to students daily. MDM was stopped a month ago by the SHG entrusted with serving it to students.
Rinarani Mallick, a Dalit student, said there was no teaching in the school as the two lady teachers, Tuni Das and Bhagyabati Mallick, who were engaged by the district education department, were playing truant.
While Das is absent since March 8, Mallick stopped coming to school June 26 after the summer vacations.
Apart from this, there is no MDM since June 26. The SHG – Dhabalashree Mahila Mandal – entrusted with providing MDM has not been providing it since the school reopened after vacation.
Cluster resources centre coordinator, Rajendra Rout, has taken class in the school only a few times.
The school managing committee chairperson, Sita Mallick, has been providing MDM to students from her own pocket. She and her husband have been taking classes due to the absence of teachers, the students said.
The guardians had brought the plight of the students to the attention of the CRCC, BEO and the Sub-Collector–cum-DPC of SSA in vain.
This is the reason the students staged a protest in front of the Collector’s office, said Pradipta Mallick, a guardian.
ADM of Kendrapara, Basant Kumar Rout, talked to the students and assured them that a teacher would go to the school and teach regularly and shortly another would be appointed. MDM would be supplied in the school Thursday. Following these assurances, the students stopped their protests.