RAUTAHAT: Students of Bisunpurwa Manpur Lower Secondary School padlocked the school, protesting an attack on a fellow student in Bisunpurwa Manpur VDC of Rautahat, today.

The students said Ajay Chaudhary, son of the school’s head teacher Raja Ram Chaudhary, had assaulted Pappu Pandit, an eighth grader.

A few days ago, the students had locked Raja Ram inside his office room after a dispute erupted over the appointment of three teachers. It has been said that Ajay had attacked Pandit over the same issue.

A meeting of the school management committee, organised almost three weeks ago, had decided to recruit three new teachers for six months under the private resource category as the school’s teaching-learning activities had been disrupted for long due to teacher crunch.

However, Raja Ram was against the decision and his lack of cooperation led to the dispute, said SMC Chairman Jawahar Pandit.

Raja Ram had insisted on preparing appointment letters for only two months, against the provision in the education act, whereas SMC wanted to recruit the teachers either for three months, six months or a year.

Following the incident, Ajay had entered the school compound with other friends and attacked those involved in the dispute.

A police team deployed from Area Police Office Garuda had brought the situation under control, said Chairman Pandit.

We, however, convinced the students to keep their calm as Raja Ram was not present in the office, said teacher Bibek Gurung. The agitating teachers have demanded strict action against him and immediate recruitment of teachers as well.

Meanwhile, Raja Ram has alleged that the SMC members had intentionally instigated the students to lock him up. “We are yet to pay the pending salary and perks of private resource teachers. Hence, I had requested them to appoint teachers for maximum two months after clearance of other teachers’ salary. But everyone attacked me instead,” he said.

He refuted that his son had manhandled the students.