Sixty teachers are teaching 3,660 students at Bagerhat Government Girls’ High School and Bagerhat Government High School. Moreover, there are no religion teachers for 700 Hindu students.

The posts of 46 teachers, out of 106, have been lying vacant for quite some time.

Meanwhile, the shortage of teachers is not only hampering studies but also increasing the cost of education. “The situation’s forcing us to enroll our children in coaching centres or arrange private tuition for them,” said Ahad Uddin Haidar, convener of the guardian forum of the two schools.
 
Bagerhat Government Girls’ High School Headmaster Dipak Ranjan Biswas said they have 1,860 students. But the posts of 26 assistant teachers, out of 53, have been lying vacant for a while, forcing other teachers to take extra classes which hampered smooth functioning of academic activities.

 
Tapan Kumar Biswas, headmaster of Bagerhat Government High School, said they have been facing an acute shortage of teachers. There are 53 posts of assistant teachers but 20 of them are vacant.
 
Shaila Islam Ripa, a 10th grader at the girls’ school, said 126 students of humanities and science groups are taking classes jointly in a single classroom.
 
Prapti, a class IX student of the school, said this is hampering their studies. “The students are failing to get their desired results,” she said.
 
Sardar Zahidul Islam, a class IX student of Bagerhat Government High School, lamented that their academic activities are being seriously hampered. “During the Junior School Certificate examination, the school authorities combined two different sections ‘Ka’ and ‘Kha’. In the end, we didn’t do that well in the exam,” he said.
 
Bagerhat Deputy Commissioner and president of the managing committees of the two schools Mamunur Rashid said an initiative has been taken to solve the teacher crisis.
 
“We’ve held talks with the authorities concerned in this regard,” he said.