Acute shortage of teaching staff plagues the Doraguda upper primary sevashram under Boipariguda block in Odisha's Koraput district.
Locals alleged that despite repeated requests, the district administration has done nothing to fill up the posts at the ST/SC development department-run school in the last two years.
A total of 487 students are studying in the sevashram, about 55 km from here. While 393, including 137 girls, stay in the hostel, 93 are day scholars. It has classes from I to VII. Both the school and the hostel are being managed by four teachers, official records showed.
"Shortage of teacher has affected quality of education in the sevashram. Since one of the four teachers is the headmaster in-charge, official chores take up most of his time and he is unable to take classes properly. To make things worse, another teacher is on study leave. Four more teachers should be appointed for smooth functioning of the school," Ram Chandra Komar, a ward member, said.
The problems do not end here. Locals alleged that the boarders are served low quality food (broken and discoloured rice) and the hostel building leaks during the rains, owing to sub-standard construction work.
"I am aware of the problems. The recruitment process is on and additional teachers would soon be posted at the school," additional district welfare officer (Koraput) Prasanna Kumar Sahu said.
"We will probe the allegation of poor quality food being served in the hostel," he added.
