In Bhubaneswar, today, July 17, girl students and their parents at a school staged a sit-in protest against the state government's decision to merge their institution with a boys' school, the police told PTI. During the agitation, at least five students from Unit-9 Government Girls High School fainted, but they were promptly taken to Capital Hospital, where their condition was reported as stable.
According to the report, the state government has decided to merge the Unit-9 Girls High School with the Unit-9 Boys High School to accommodate and relocate Rama Devi Women's Junior College.
The Director of Higher Secondary School in Odisha has already written a letter to the School & Mass Education Special Secretary regarding the separation of infrastructure between RD Women's Higher Secondary School and Rama Devi Women's University.
Under the decision, the Arts and Commerce streams would be shifted to Unit-9 Government Girls' High School in the first phase, while science students would continue their classes at Rama Devi Women's University due to the lack of laboratory facilities for science education at the school.
During the protest, Congress leader and Jatni MLA, Suresh Routray, joined the girls' agitation, opposing the merger of the girls' school with the boys' school. He emphasised, "Former Chief Minister Dr Harekrushna Mahtab had set up the girls' high school at Unit-9 for encouraging girls to continue study, The government cannot merge this school.”
Pragyan Paramita Jena, the Bhubaneswar Block Education Officer, visited the protest site and tried to persuade the students and parents to accept the merger. However, her appeal was rejected by the protesters. "I will inform the government about the opinion of the girls," she said before leaving the place.
