After most of teachers, dissatisfied with School Management Committee (SMC)´s decision of appointing Tej Narayan Bhattarai as the new headmaster, stopped teaching, regular classes in the school have been affected. Of the 19 teachers, 12 teachers have not turned up at the school for over the last one month. [break]
District Education Office (DEO) of Jhapa has not effectively stepped in to settle the dispute in Bhanu Secondary School, which currently has 711 students on its rolls. The DEO has only asked SMC and teachers to resolve the dispute through talks.
“They appear amicable to each other in front of us,” Uddhav Bishta, under secretary at the DEO, said. “Once they return to school, they stick to their guns.”
The dispute ensued after former headmaster Yam Nath Chimariya retired. The outgoing headmaster Chimariya had appointed Bhanu Dhungana as the new headmaster by consulting other teachers. However, SMC´s new executive committee scrapped Chimariya´s decision and appointed Tej Narayan Bhattarai as the new headmaster.
Teachers have accused SMC of being politically influenced while appointing Bhattarai. While Bhattarai is pro-Maoist, Dhungana was reportedly close to CPN-UML.
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