In the Saraswati Secondary School located in Sidingwa Rural Municipality-4, Sablakhu, Taplejung, education has been adversely affected due to the absence of a mathematics teacher for nearly two years. The school has been operating as a proposed secondary school without a mathematics teacher, and the teaching of compulsory mathematics for classes 6-8 and compulsory and optional mathematics for classes 9 and 10 has been severely impacted.
The former mathematics teacher, Shanti Ram Mishra, was dismissed by the school management committee on 5th Chait 2078, on charges of being absent from school and not teaching even though he was present. According to Tej Bahadur Lingden, the chairman of the school management committee, Mishra had been dismissed from the school a year before his dismissal. The school management committee had initiated the process of filling the vacant position after Mishra's dismissal, but due to the current leadership of the rural municipality, the process has not been completed yet.
The school held a press conference on Monday, accusing the village leadership of disrupting education. The school stated that they had advertised the teacher vacancies through the related village education branch and the education development and coordination unit of the district. However, instead of helping the rural municipality to fill the teacher posts through the advertisement, the teacher Mishra, who was dismissed by reducing the posts, was being considered to be posted in other schools. The chairman of the school management committee, Lingden, expressed their disappointment in the illegal and irregular process of appointing Mishra, which was influenced by the village chairman, Man Bahadur Rai. The school demanded the illegal actions of the municipal chairman be rectified, as it was causing havoc with the education of the students and ruining their future.
The principal of the school, Salina Tamang, reported that the absence of a mathematics teacher has had significant effects on education for the past two years. To compensate for the lack of a subject teacher, the population and English subject teachers have been teaching mathematics for classes 6-8. Similarly, the science subject teachers have been teaching mathematics electives for classes 9 and 10. The school informed that they had received three applications in response to the advertisement to fill the vacant position. Presently, the school has 154 students.
Taplejung
