Angry over lack of teachers, villagers lock Upper Primary school in Gadwal

Gadwal: The villagers of Kottapalem village in Dharur mandal in Gadwal district on Wednesday locked the upper primary school and vowed not to open its doors until the School Education Department took steps to appoint adequate teaching staff. 

According to the protesting villagers, the upper primary school has more than 300 students and students up to eighth class are studying in this school. However, for the past five years only two teachers are forced to teach the students in all classes. Due to inadequate number of teachers, the students in higher classes, from 5th to 8th cannot cope with studies.

The villagers said their appeal to the the Mandal Education Officer and other higher-ups at the district level fell on deaf ears. Between 40 and 50 new students are enrolling in the school every year.

However, there are no adequate number of teachers. As our request to the officials have not yielded we have decided to lock the school and will not open it until the higher authorities in the district give us an assurance of appointing additional teachers,” said the agitating villagers. 

As the Upper Primary school is having up to 8th class the villagers are demanding that at least eight teachers be appointed in the school so that the students joining here will get good quality education. Many parents, who had earlier admitted their children to the school, have now decided to admit their children in private schools.