We all know and have learned since childhood that a teacher is undoubtedly the most important member of our society. A teacher is the one who gives children purpose, inspires in them a drive to do well and succeed in life, and set them up for success as citizens of our world. Kids of today are the leaders of tomorrow who are going to rule the country, and teachers are that critical point that makes a kid ready for their future.
It’s always said that a great teacher has the ability to change the lives of children for the better but a recent incident that happened in Jharkhand has left us speechless. Some students of a Scheduled Tribe (ST) Residential School in Jharkhand’s Dumka tied their mathematics teacher and a school staffer to a tree and thrashed them for giving poor marks during a practical examination. The horrific incident took place on Monday at a government-run school in the Gopikandar police station area of the district Dumka.
Eleven students from class 9 received Grade ‘DD’ in their mathematics practical exam which is considered equivalent to fail. The results were declared by Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) on Saturday. A total of 36 students took the practical test out of which 11 of them failed. When the student requested to see their maths practical papers, the principal allegedly refused. After that, they approached the school staff, who denied looking into their request. The maths teacher was identified as Suman Kumar, while the staff who was tied along with him was Soneram Chaure. Both of them were thrashed by some students over marks given during the practical examination by the teacher. The angry group of students also broke a chair during the incident.
The group of students said that the teacher gave poor marks to them in their maths practical examinations, causing them to fail in the exams. They also alleged that the staff of the school was responsible for uploading the marks online on Jharkhand Academic Council’s site.
Nityanand Bhokta, Gopikandar police station in charge told Press Trust of India that the school management did not file an FIR or any complaint on the affected teacher’s and staff’s behalf. “No FIR has been lodged in the case, as school management did not give any written complaint about the incident. After verification of the incident, I asked the school authority to file a complaint but it refused to say that it might spoil the careers of the students.”
Anant Jha, Gopikandar block development officer (BDO) said that the majority of the students in the school were involved in the shameful incident. There are somewhat around 200 students in the school.
Anant Jha said “The victim teacher was earlier headmaster of the school but later he was removed for reasons not known. It might be a case of rivalry among teachers. To maintain law and order of the school, classes for class-9 and class-10 have been suspended for two days and students were sent back to their homes.”
“The school management, however, failed to show the marks of practical examinations and the date on which the marks were uploaded online. It is still not clear whether the students failed in theory papers or practicals. Prima facie it seems, the students took the action only on a rumor.”
