Night guard’s potatoes fill classroom in Kalai, pupils go home without lessons
Photo: Collected
Potatoes spread across the floor with a fan whirring beside them: this scene from a classroom at Jamura-Basura Government Primary School in Kalai upazila of Joypurhat recently spread on social media. It has been alleged that potatoes were stored in the room for a week.
As a result, teaching in that room has reportedly been disrupted for about a week.
Guardians say the school’s night guard, Abdul Hamid, used the room with the knowledge of acting head teacher Syed Robiul Islam. Yet pupils, finding no room to sit in, have had to head home without classes.
On a visit, the school was found closed for the Kali Puja holiday. In a concrete room of the building beside the field, potatoes brought out of cold storage had been laid out on the floor to dry, with some in sacks. The sound of the fan could be heard even from outside. The pupils’ benches, high benches and the teacher’s table and chair had been pushed to one side. The room was in no state for classes.
According to local people, this is not the first time. The night guard had earlier stored paddy too. Whatever crop comes in, he uses the school rooms as if they were his own home, sometimes for months on end. They also said regular classes were not being held because the potatoes had not been removed.
In the words of schoolgirl Somaiya Khatun, ‘We come to school but there are no classes. After attendance we make noise in the market area, and at noon we have to go back home.’
Several teachers who did not want to be named said, ‘With whose permission the night guard kept potatoes in the classroom and then dried them with the fan running, you will understand if it is investigated properly. Pupils are not getting classes, they wander around and leave. The head teacher says nothing, so what can we do.’
The accused night guard Abdul Hamid said, ‘As there was no space at my house, the potatoes were kept in the school room. I kept them after telling the head teacher. I took the potatoes away a day later.’
Syed Robiul Islam, in charge as head teacher, said, ‘What can I really say, he kept the potatoes in that room on a holiday without telling me. Later he took them away. I do not know about the fan being run.’
Upazila education officer Mosa. Morsheda Khatun did not answer calls to her mobile phone for comment and instead cut the calls several times. There was no response to a final attempt at 3:34pm today either, so her comment could not be obtained.
Later, upazila nirbahi officer Md Faisal Ahmed was contacted. He said he was not aware of the video being posted on Facebook, but added that action is being taken very quickly.
Sources
Original report: Bangladesh Pratidin
