In what can be termed as careless attitude, teachers of a Hariabanka Primary School under Kendrapda district’s Mahakalpada block closed all classroom doors without making a search due to which a Class II girl student stayed locked over two hours after 11 am on Saturday.When 7-year-old girl Rita Jana didn’t return home in time after school hours on Saturday, her parents and villagers made a frantic search till they heard crying sound near the school. They then marked that the sound was coming from a classroom. They soon broke open window pane of the classroom and rescued Rita.
Rita told her parents that she had slept in the rood and didn’t know when the school was over and the door was locked. She woke up around 1 pm and started crying finding helself alone in the dark closed room.“It is a matter of gross negligence. My daughter spent more than two hours in the locked-room. Concerned staff should have checked the room before locking the door,” said Pradip Jana, Rita’s father.When contacted, District Education Officer Sangram Sahu said he would conduct an inquiry soon into the matter and necessary action would be taken against the errant staff.
