Locked doors welcome students at school!

The students and parents were in shock when they found the doors of the 180-year-old aided UBMC Higher Primary School locked on the day of reopening on Wednesday in Haleyangady.

Head Teacher from the neighbouring English medium school Irene Karkada confirmed that the school was set to reopen on Wednesday and the holidays had not been extended due to acute water scarcity.

She told the parents that the UBMC school had been shutdown and the school would issue transfer certificates to help children get admitted to other schools.

“Due to shortage of teachers, the management decided to shutdown the school,” she added.

The school’s management blamed the government for not deputing any teacher to the school. Even the guest teacher appointed to the school has not attended school on the reopening day. As the school remained closed, the children were not enrolled. The parents, however, insisted the management to reopen the school.

The school was started in 1840. There are 50 children pursuing their studies from Class 1 to Class 7.

Headmistress of the school Irene Christabel retired in November, 2018. To ensure that the school was not shutdown in the middle of academic year, four teachers were appointed by the management on honorary basis.

Despite appealing to the education department, no teacher had been deputed so far, alleged parents.

Zilla Panchayat member and an alumni of the school Vinod Bollur said, “I had contacted the DDPI and begged not to shutdown the school. The DDPI had promised to make alternative arrangement in January. A teacher will be deployed to the school within a day or two. The parents and students need not panic.”

Social activist Nanda Pais said, “We have been demanding appointment of teachers to the school since a year. We had already filed a complaint to Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The education department should not play with the lives of 50 children. We will not allow the closure of the school.”