The villagers of Asulkhar and Panderpuri on Friday reached the office of the Block Education Officer (BEO) here and handed over a memorandum to him requesting not to close down the school in their village. However, the villagers threatened that in case their demand was not considered, they would protest against the decision of the State Government.
The villagers said that on the closure of the school, the children of Asulkhar would have to walk down a distance of 3 kilometres to reach the nearby school. Meanwhile, the students of Panderpuri village would have to go to Sambalpur which is 2 kilometers away or Kanhargaon which is 3 kilometers away. Because of the government decision to close down the school in their village the residents are very much annoyed. The government is closing not only such schools which have less number of children but have more than 40 students. This action would adversely affect the standard of education in the schools, the villagers said.