Dispute Over Managing Body
<i>275 kids suffer as their school locked for days</i>
Botrish Hazar High School in Lalmonirhar Sadar upazila has remained under lock and key since Saturday, following a dispute over the school managing committee.Photo: STAR
Academic activities of Botrish Hazari High School at Botrish Hazari village under Sadar upazila have remained suspended since Saturday following disputes over formation of a controversial managing committee. Frustrated students demonstrated in front the deputy commissioner's office yesterday demanding removal of Toyebur Rahman Toyeb, headmaster of the school for his alleged role in forming the body. Lalmonirhat Sadar Upazila Assistant Education Officer Jahangir Alam, who saw the school closed during his visit yesterday noon, asked the headmaster and other teachers over cell phone to come to the school but they ignored the message, the official said. “I have taken statement of the local guardians and students of Botrish Hazari High School. I will inform my higher authority who will take necessary action against the persons concerned,” Jahangir Alam said. There are 12 staff including nine teachers, a clerk, a peon and a night guard and 275 students, including 155 girls and 125 boys, who read in classes six to ten in this school. Several students said they regularly come to the school but have to go back without any classes as all the classrooms and teachers' room have remained locked since Saturday. Even after calling the headmaster and other teachers they do not get any reasonable answer. "We come to the school in time but go back home without getting any lessons, as teachers and other staffs are not available in the school,” said Sanzida Akhter, a student of class eight of Botrish Hazari High School. Abdul Gofur, 48, a guardian, alleged that headmaster Toyebur Rahman Toyeb recently formed the school managing committee with his chosen people from outside the locality to do a 'good business' concerning recruitment of six teachers in the school. When Soleman Ali, a resident of Hira Manik village, also a teacher of Haziganj High School in Aditmari upazila, was selected chairman of the managing committee last week, local people vehemently protested it, he said. "For saving himself from the wrath of locals, the headmaster has remained absent from the school since Saturday. Other teachers and staff have also stopped coming to the school following the headmaster," he said. Anisuzzaman Sarker, a teacher of the school, also the teachers' representative in the school managing committee, said, "We feel helpless as the headmaster is all in all and everything is done according to his will." Asked by this correspondent, Botrish Hazari High School managing committee chairman Soleman Ali said he was made chairman by headmaster Toyebur Rahman Toyeb. He declined to tell further regarding the matter. When contacted, headmaster of Botrish Hazari High School Toyebur Rahman Toyeb said that he will not talk with any newsman regarding the matter. "I will reply only if my authority asks," he said.
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