Asserting their right for improved classroom teaching tiny tots rose in protest to stage dharna

Balasore:21/8/17: Asserting their right for improved classroom teaching, tiny tots today rose in protest to stage dharna in front of their school in a remote village in Odisha’s Balasore district.

With parents and guardians rallying behind their wards, protesting children skipped classes in a show of disapproval to the gross deficiencies in the required number of teachers of the Baharda nodal primary school under Remuna block of the district.

The Right to Education Act (RTE) mandates a pupil teacher ratio (PTR) of 30:1 in order to ensure that children learn better in the classroom. But the village school was dogged by vacant teachers’ post and was running without the PTR. To aggravate the situation further, the school headmaster was transferred recently, badly affecting classroom teaching. This has prompted the children to state the novel protest to assert their right under RTE, said a guardian.

The local schools and mass education department officials, despite repeated attempts, were not available for comments.

Scenario as far as PTA is concerned is exceeding bleak in Odisha. Of the 51,964 government-run primary schools in the state, nearly 18,000 schools are in operation without adhering to PTA norms. Despite recruitment of over 7,000 Sikshya Sahayaks or para-teacher earlier this year, things have improved to the desired level.