Students bear the brunt of absentee principal

SIRAHA, March 19: For the past three years, students of first, second and third grades have been taking classes huddled inside a single room. But this is not due to insufficiency of classrooms or teachers. Rather, it is due to the lengthy absence of the school principal.



The students of Shree Lower Secondary School at Mahadeva Portaha of Siraha are not getting proper tutoring as the principal, Bhola Prasad Yadav, has been absent for months now. Several teachers are taking advantage of his absence by being absent themselves. [break]



Ranjani Kumar Mahato, a third grader, said class time is usually spent taking roll calls of students of all the three grades. If time is left, only one grade is taught, while the other two grades leave the class and enjoy a break, according to Mahato.



On some days, students spend entire school hours playing, according to Sanjay Kumar Sah, a second grader. The students have no body to complain about the situation as the principal himself doesn´t show up.



Gita Kumari Yadav, a teacher, said keeping students of different grades in one room was an old practice at the school, and she was only following the tradition. She, however, admitted the practice is very inconvenient to both teachers as well as students.



Teachers complain that the school principal shows up only when he feels like it.



The school runs classes up to the eighth-grade and has 325 students. The school principal stopped coming to school regularly after the school´s management board accusing him of corruption during construction of a section of school building asked to produce a bank statement.



The school principal could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

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