Taking a cue from the Rewari girls, students of two government schools in Gurugram and Palwal held protests on Friday seeking an upgrade of their institutions to the senior secondary level.
At Kadarpur village in Gurugram, a large number of students, including boys, locked the main entrance to their school in the morning and sat on a dharna . The school staff were in for a rude surprise when the students did not allow them to enter the premises.
School gate locked
“When I reached the school around 7:30 a.m., I found the main gate locked and the students not allowing anyone to go past them. The teachers later entered the school through the rear gate,” said school headmaster Ranjit Singh.
Arti, one of the protesters, said they had to travel around 10 km to a school in neighbouring Badshahpur village and were harassed by boys on their way.
“Sometimes we don’t even find conveyance to the school. If the village school is not upgraded, only 10-15 girls would be allowed to continue their studies and the rest will have to drop out,” said the Class X student.
Soon, Sohna Block Education Officer Ritu Chaudhary and other officials reached the spot. The students, however, refused to budge despite written assurances from them. “I gave them in writing that their demand for the upgrade had been sent to the government, but they refused to give up the dharna seeking written assurance from the De0puty Commissioner,” said Ms. Chaudhary.
Agitation called off
The students called off their agitation in the afternoon after local MLA Tanwar Tejpal spoke to Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma and assured them that admissions to Class XI would begin soon after the summer vacation.
Mr. Tejpal said he had requested for an upgrade of four schools in his Assembly constituency in 2015 and two of them had been already upgraded.
Mr. Singh said the school met all the norms to be upgraded. “We have a total of 160 students in Classes IX and X against the requisite 150. As per the norms, we need 2 acres of land and 14 classrooms, but we have 2.5 acres and 16 classrooms,” said the headmaster, adding that the request for the upgrade was sent in April, but the confirmation was yet to come Similarly, students at Saloti village in neighbouring Palwal sat on a dharna seeking an upgrade of their school to the senior secondary level.
Officials take stock
“As soon as the local administration got to know about the agitation, the District Education Officer was rushed to the site. I spoke to the Sarpanch and told him to get 40-50 more admissions to meet the norms. The agitation was later called off,” said Palwal Deputy Commissioner Ashok Sharma.
