Students of Killoguda Government School went on a protest on Thursday opposing “cluster” approach to schools and merger of their school with the Tribal Welfare School.
The students led by the Girijan Sangham raised slogans against the proposal of the State government to merge schools and limit the number to one school in each panchayat. They also demanded hostel facility at their school.
Girijan Sangham secretary Suryanarayana said there were 17 zilla parishad and government schools in the 11 mandals of the Agency. All the schools have full-fledged staff and in case of merger with Tribal Welfare Schools, 200 teachers would lose jobs and over 4,000 students would have to be accommodated in other schools and the facilities would be far from adequate.
“Further, the cluster system of maintaining only one school in each panchayat would result in more drop-outs. There are 12 to 20 villages in each panchayat and those living away from panchayat headquarters may have to walk long distances to reach schools,” he said.
