Rautahat, December 21

Shree Primary School at Badaharwa of Durgabhagawati Rural Municipality-5, Rautahat, is in crisis due to regular absenteeism on the part of teachers.

The school, which is located in the middle of a Dalit settlement, has a quota for four teachers including the head teacher. “No teacher is seen at the school for weeks. No teacher was seen today as well,” complained Rup Narayan Paswan, a local guardian.

“Even the authority has not taken any initiative to operate the school smoothly. It remains closed almost every day as teachers remain busy with their personal work outside and the school’s main gate stays locked.

People’s representatives have also remained mum about resuming the school effectively,” said another local Rajesh Thakur. All the four teachers are from the locality.

Though a few students come to school, they return after seeing the lock at the gate.

Local Shiva Shankar Sribastav is the head teacher while his wife Sanju and daughter Suman are the other teachers. They rarely come to the school and update their attendance. Similar is the case of another teacher Manoj Mishra.

Though around 200 students were enrolled at the school, around 20 to 25 students come to the school but there is no education to be gained thanks to the sheer negligence on the part of teachers.

“As the children can’t attend class, we engage them in household activities besides grazing cattle,” said Mukesh Kapad, a local.

Meanwhile, District Education Office, Rautahat School Administration Department Chief Upendra Singh said that head teacher Sribastav was facing a corruption charge at the CIAA’s central office Kathmandu and the regional office in Hetauda.