School closed indefinitely as pupils beat up teachers

PHIDIM: A dispue between students and teachers on conducting the half-yearly examination at Siddakali Higher Secondary School prompted the indefinite closure of the school, bringing the educational activities to a halt from the past two days.

After the row over the examination took a nasty turn, the teachers padlocked the school in in Ektin VDC of Panchthar indefinitely after some students beat them up when the examination was in progress.

According to Principal Padamdev Kerung, the school had started the examination as per the published routine from Wednesday but some students resorted to beating the teachers on the first day of the examination. Following the students’ misdemeanour, a meeting of the teachers decided to expel seven students. The situation worsened further after the angry students locked six teachers inside the school, demanding to withdraw the decision of expelling them.

“After the situation turned volatile, the teachers decided to padlock the school fearing security,” Kerung said.

“We have called for another meeting on Sunday to sort out the differences,” said Medani Khatri, chairman of the school management committee. Series of meeting held so far failed to convince both the parties.