Students protest over exam attendance rule, detain school head and teachers
Telegraph | 1 March 2025
The head of a government-aided school in Behala and several teachers were detained on Thursday night by students who would not be allowed to write their Class XI second semester examination for not reaching the required attendance mark.
The protests started at noon.
Till late on Thursday night, the school head and the teachers remained confined.
The protest started at Behala High School when the school authorities announced on Thursday that 80 students of Class XI would not be allowed to take the examination.
A teacher said the students were required to have 50 per cent attendance to be eligible to write the second semester examination, scheduled to start on March 3.
The state’s Plus II course has been split into four semesters from 2024-25 academic year. The first and second semesters are for the students of Class XI and the third and fourth semesters are for those who will be promoted to Class XII.
“But these 80 students did not have the attendance, so they were barred from writing the examination,” said the teacher.
Around noon, the students blocked the entrance of the school, off Diamond Harbour Road.
They started sloganeering and demanding that they be allowed to appear in the semester examination.
“We will continue the agitation till the headmaster comes and meets us. We must be allowed to write the examination,” said one of the protesting students.
Tapan Kumar Mandal, the president of the school management committee, said: “We will hold a meeting with some of the parents on Friday. If required, we will approach the state higher secondary council to try and find a solution. We are not above the law. We have to see whether anything can be done within the purview of the law.”
A police contingent from Behla police station was deployed outside the school as the agitating students were trying to barge into the teachers’ room.