Pokhara, December 19

A teacher at Pokhara-based Amarsingh Secondary School faced action for committing sexual violence against his student.

According to school sources, Udayaraj Pokharel, a permanent teacher also teaching Plus-two classes in the morning, had misbehaved with an eleventh grader in the education stream. Following mounting pressure from students, the school administration and management committee today took action against Pokharel.

According to Principal Tejaswi Baral, the teacher won’t be allowed to take plus-two classes any more. He teaches Social Studies up to Grade X and Pedagogy in the plus-two level.

According to the victim, she had to expose the teacher after the latter harassed her by sending sexually explicit photos on her Facebook account.

Though students had reported the violence to the school on Monday itself, as nothing happened, the angry students had walked out of their classrooms today morning.

According to Principal Tejaswi Baral, talks were held between the school management committee, school administration, guardians and students today to discuss the matter.

“Though the teacher concerned said he was ready to apologise for his unbecoming act, students refused to accept him as teacher, so we’ve decided to relieve him from the teacher’s position in the morning session,” said the principal.

It is important to note that though similar complaints of sexual violence against girls had been reported to the school administration earlier too, he had always managed to get away with his unbecoming acts.

Pokhara metropolis Education Division chief Ganga Bahadur Gurung, on his part, said his office so far hasn’t received even a single case related to sexual violence.

“Generally, we monitor other things but hardly inquire about an issue such as this. We are ready to take action against teachers involved in sexual violence and the school concerned should anyone approach with a complaint,” he said.