As the difficulty in the self-learning process was increasing day by day, over 50 students along with their parents trooped into the Collector’s office here on Monday demanding his intervention to post adequate teachers to their school. 

The Government High School in Anuparpalayam near Nanjundapuram has just four teachers to handle over 120 students studying from class 6 to 10. 

Students complained that the school doesn’t have teachers even for important subjects like Mathematics and Science and this was the situation for over a year now. Significantly, the post of head master also has also been lying vacant for a long time, they added. 

Vacancies arose after teachers either got transferred or retired, but no efforts were made by authorities concerned to fill them up. Worried over  their studies getting affected due to lack of teachers for many subjects, the students recently raised the matter with officials of the education department, but of no avail. 

“We are forced to sit idle all through the day as most of the classes are not held due to shortage of teachers. Left with no other option, we are forced to spend on tuitions to learn the lessons. It affects our academic prospects as the school has begun to perform poorly in the recent years because of government’s apathy,” said an aggrieved student. 

The dropout rate from the school, which once had good student strength, is increasing year on year due to deteriorating quality of teaching, he added. The continued apathy displayed by the education department led over 50 students and parents to visit the Collectorate during the grievance day meet on Monday. On receiving their petition, Collector TN Hariharan promised to discuss the issue with education department officials to fill up the vacancies as soon as possible.