Jajarkot, May 16

Regular classes have been disrupted at Bal Secondary School of Chhedagada Municipality, Jajarkot, for the past two weeks after it was padlocked by guardians.

Local guardians, along with other stakeholders, had padlocked the school on April 29 putting forward a number of demands, including the audit of school accounts, revocation of exorbitant fees charged from students of Grade XI and XII and appointment of a more qualified teacher in the post of school principal.

“On the one hand, the education standard of the school has gone down drastically, while on the other, the school is mired in corruption. As our frequent calls for investigation of the shenanigans at the school went unheard, we had to resort to the lockout,” said local Bire Luhar.

He further expressed surprise at the lack of initiative from the school and the town education section to end the lockout.

Incumbent principal Prithvi Bahadur Singh, however, claimed that the lockout was a result of political bias. “It is clear that the school was padlocked over political issue. Such lockouts will not solve the problem,” he said.

The school runs classes up to Grade XII and has around 700 students.