Claims of upgrading schools under the State Government’s 5T transformation programme seem to have fallen flat after a video went viral of a teacher writing examination questions on the classroom door in the absence of a blackboard in one such school in Jajpur district.
The sorry state of affairs was reported from the Hingula Government High School near Antia village under Dharmagarh block, which had been upgraded under the 5T initiative in November last year.
In the clip doing rounds, questions were being written on the door of Class-V of the school. Students, when asked, said this has been a regular affair for them.
The issue came to the fore during the exams of Classes I-VIII in the school on Monday. While students arrived as per the scheduled timings, they could not take the exams as question papers were not given to them. They were only given answer sheets. When the news spread, parents, guardians and members of the school management committee reached the spot and questioned the irregularity.
While a heated exchange between Headmistress Saraswati Panda and the management committee members ensued, a guardian, DebendraMaharana alleged that the exam was delayed as the school lacked basic infrastructure. “Around 500 students including mine study in this school. But the entire building does even have a blackboard. At last, questions had to be written on the classroom door,” he stated.
A teacher, ShatrughanBarik, when asked, confessed that the classroom door was used for writing questions.
Interestingly, the school is located only about 10 km from the block headquarters.