Nearly 50 girl students in Haryana's Karsola village went on an indefinite hunger strike today demanding upgrade of their school to senior secondary level.
The incident comes days after students in Rewari held a protest over a similar demand.
The students locked the gate of the Karsola Government High School and launched their protest outside it along with villagers, Julana Police Station in-charge Chandrabahan said.
The principal and teachers were not allowed to enter the school, and several attempts to end the protest were futile, he said.
"At present, the school is only till Class X and with around 300 students it meets all the parameters required to be upgraded to school with classes till standard XII," Karsola sarpanch Rajpal said
"Several requests were made to the government to upgrade the school, however, all have fell on deaf ears," he said.
The sarpanch said the gates will not be opened till the government assures us that the school will be upgraded.
On May 15 in Rewari's Gothda Tappa Dahina village, around 80 girls of a state-run high school went on an indefinite strike demanding their institution be upgraded, fearing they will be harassed if they travel for higher studies to a senior secondary school in a different village.
In a rerun, over 150 students of a school in Gurgaon went on strike on Saturday and in Palwal district parents today launched a stir outside a school over similar demands.
"For Class 12, students have to go to schools in Jind and Rohtak, which are far away from the village. This has resulted in girl students dropping out," Rajpal said.
Villagers claimed that four years ago the local MP had been requested to put forth their demand to upgrade the school to the government.
However, Julana education officer Adarsh Rajan said, "A letter has been written to the Education Department for upgrading the Karsola Government High School."
"A school can be upgraded to Class 12, only, if it has at least 150 students and there is no other school within five kilometres. The decision to upgrade this school will be taken by the School Upgrade Directorate," he said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
