Dhamnagar: At a time when Class X students across the state have braced themselves up for the annual High School Certificate (HSC) examinations, as many as 75 students of a High School, not to mention their parents, are a worried lot.
The school has only one teacher in total, and he is a Hindi teacher.
The school in question is Jagannath High School under Dehudi Anandapur panchayat of Dhamnagar block in Bhadrak district.
Earlier the school used to have two teachers- an English teacher with the present Hindi teacher. After promotion, the English teacher was transferred elsewhere.
And since then the Hindi teacher is managing the show solitarily.
The students and parents feel they are completely at sea for the school not having teachers for important subjects like Mathematics, Science and English.
The parents who are under severe mental pressure thinking about the future of their children asked how a single teacher will prepare the students for the examinations particularly when the teaching was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They further alleged that they have taken the matter up with the education department several times but to no avail.
Earlier the school used to have teachers and a reputation so parents of Anandapur panchayat and the nearby Khadipada panchayat and of villages like Sathagaon, Biroli, Dandakula and Tikhilia under Bhandaripokhari block had enrolled their children at this school.
But the current predicament of the school has left them dejected.
When contacted, block education officer (BEO) Pitambar Barik said efforts were on to send teachers to the school in one or two days.
Notably, some teachers of the Nodal School in the locality have come to the students’ rescue and have been teaching them for five days now to support the efforts of the only teacher.
PNN