Scores of students were made to sit for hours on the open grounds at the Teacher’s Day celebrations at Police Parade grounds here on Friday.
With Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu wanting to organise the event in a grand manner, the district administration went on an overdrive asking the Education Department to mobilise students. In addition to government schools, the department also asked the private schools too to send their students to the programme. Most of the private schools declared a holiday. The parade grounds was brimming with more than 15,000 students, many of them standing or squatting.
The programme began at 11.45 a.m., 45 minutes behind schedule and ended at 2.30 p.m. with Naidu’s address taking 90 minutes. Students who began to trickle around 10 a.m. were forced to sit for four hours. The students were, however, provided with food packets and water bottle. “We are pleading with the DEO to stop schools from sending students,’’ said an inspector on duty.
