By SANTOSH MOHANTY
Bantala Nodal High School in Angul district is losing credibility among students and guardians due to shortage of teachers over the years.
The school is going without a headmaster for months and the post of PCM teacher has fallen vacant for over two years. The authorities, it is alleged, have not yet decided to appoint a headmaster ever since the incumbent retired. The PCM teacher was deputed elsewhere two years ago without minding about the consequences it will have on teaching.
The school Managing Committee sources said resolutions were passed and forwarded to appropriate authorities for early posting of headmaster and required teaching staff, but to no avail. The sources said the sitting MLA Rajanikant Singh has also been requested to look into the matter, but it has gone unheeded.
Shortage of teaching staff has allegedly cast it adverse impact on attendance as a number of students have preferred to take admissions in nearby educational institutions for better schooling. Guardians alleged that it is true that the school has been transformed under 5T, but teaching has become a victim. The high school which was built in 1960, has acquired a new avatar of late, but the days are not far ahead when it will be left with a few students, they said wryly.
The Managing Committee sources further complained that teaching staff apart, the posts of clerk and night watchman have also fallen vacant for over seven years. While the clerk has been deputed to other school, the night watchman is posted at Block Education Office in Angul, the sources added.
