Shimla: Students boycott classes to protest against shortage of teachers

In a serious lapse by the concerned authorities, students of a government High School at Palzara in Shimla have boycotted their classes as a mark of protest due to an acute shortage of teachers in the school.

Students and their parents have gone on strike, demanding more teachers, and have been protesting from the past two days.

According to the students, the school has two teachers, while the present strength of the students in the school is 45.

"We come from distances as far as five to six kilometers, but only have two teachers in the school. This is injustice," said Preeti Negi, a student of the school.

Students and parents have decided to continue the protest until they get the complete teaching staff for the school.

While one of the teachers takes hold of the administrative official work for the school, another one teaches the students of 10th standard. Hence according to the students, they are not able to complete their school syllabus

However, one of the teachers in the school said that he has requested the students to join classes and assured them to cover the entire syllabus.He said both parents and students have refused to call off the strike.

"I have requested the parents to send their children to school. I will try to cover all subjects but they just refused," one of the teachers told ANI.

The nonconformists, fighting for their rights, have given the government a 'five-day ultimatum' and have asked the authorities to start a massive protest until they get the teaching staff.

Ironically, the school is in Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's home area at Rampur subdivisions.

The parents also claim that they have been demanding for more teachers for the school from Chief Minister, as well as from the Local legislator Nand Lal.

"We have demanded teachers for school and have written to Chief Minister and also met the local MLA many times but nobody has responded to our demand. Now the students have started boycotting the classes for past two days. We now request you to send us teachers," said a concerned parent.

One of the frustrated parents said that on one hand the Government has been propagating the slogans of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Phadao' while on the other, they are suffering in this way. She further said that she wants to provide her child with higher education, which at the moment seems bleak due to shortage of teachers in

the school.

Established in 1997, the Palzara High School has sanctioned staff strength of fourteen, including the headmaster.

But due to some reason, the posts of teachers are vacant from the past 4-5 years.