SANKHUWASABHA: Teachers affiliated with Unified CPN-Maoist launched an agitation in Sankhuwasabha yesterday to press the government for implementing the agreements it made with the teachers. The teachers shut all the schools and approached the district headquarters, Khandbari, and Chainpur to intensify their agitation. Some 700 teachers have flocked to Khandbari and Chainpur after All Nepal Teachers’ Association and Nepal Educational Republican Forum made public their agitation programme. Absence of the large number of teachers has hit educational institutions hard. The total number of teachers is 1,700 in the district. As many as 50,000 students study in 12 higher secondary, 43 secondary, 55 lower secondary and 291 primary schools. “As the government is not serious about implementing the agreement reached with Ministry of Education, we are forced to stage agitation,” Pushpa Bahadur Koirala, ANTU district in-charge said. “We will shut all the schools in the district if the pact is not implemented,” ANTU district secretary Bhim Kattel said. The agitating teachers said they would adopt stricter means if the implementation process did not begin by July 12. “We can do nothing on our own,” said Dirghadhoj Chapagain, District Education Officer. “The teachers can present their demands but they cannot deprive the students of their right to education.”