Phulbani: About 280 students of a residential girls high school left the hostel premises on Monday protesting against the alleged mismanagement, irregularities and misbehaviour by their teachers, officials said.
The girls told reporters here, that the school`s physical education teacher along with the head mistress of the school misbehaved with a section of students repeatedly during last month over some trivial matters.
The students also alleged that they were not given proper food for a couple of months and were forcibly engaged in domestic works by the hostel authorities.
"We decided to leave the hostel as the district authorities have turned deaf ear to our grievances," one of the girls said.
However, District Welfare Officer (DWO) Purna Chandra Dash said that the situation was an outcome of a misunderstanding between the Head Mistress and the students.
"It is unfortunate that the students left the hostel," Dash said adding that he was probing into the matter.
However, about 50 students have already returned to the school and the rest were being motivated, Dash claimed.
The incident of students fleeing from residential schools and Sevashrams was mainly due to the ill feeling and unhealthy relationship between the teachers and the students, DWO Dash said.
About 100 girls students of Durgapanga girls High School near Kotagarh had left the school under the same circumstance last week but all the students already have returned back to the school, Dash said.
Eight such cases of unauthorised leaving of schools or hostels by students have been reported last year, the DWO said.
PTI
