Student rush from hills - Indefinite strike makes parents jittery

MRINALINI SHARMA

Siliguri, Aug. 2: Narendra Kumar travelled for over five hours from Bihar today to take home his son, a Class IV student, after his Kurseong school called up last night and advised the father to do so. “I have been keeping tabs on the developments in Darjeeling hills ever since the strike was called on July 29. Yesterday, there was an announcement of a 96-hour strike starting from Saturday after which there would be a relaxation. But the school informed me around 7pm yesterday that the strike would be indefinite and asked me to take my son home,” said Kumar, a resident of Begusarai in Bihar, 400km from here. “I immediately took a Siliguri-bound bus, arrived here this morning, went to Kurseong and brought my son down here with me.” His son, a student of Goethal’s Memorial School, was among several hundred students from different schools in Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling who came down to Siliguri today after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha said yesterday that it would stick to its plan of an indefinite strike. Yesterday morning, the party had said it would give the hill people a relief window from the strike for Id, but Bimal Gurung later scrapped the plan. He said the general strike in the hills from tomorrow would be indefinite. “I admitted my son to Goethal’s last year because it is a renowned institution. Then the situation in Darjeeling was peaceful. It is not certain when the school will reopen and other schools will not take my son in the middle of the academic session. This gap will certainly take a toll in his studies. He has no option but to complete this academic session in this school. But we will consider admitting him to another school next year,” Kumar said. There are 45 ICSE schools in the hills, all residential. Some of the older residential schools in Darjeeling were set up soon after the Raja of Sikkim gifted Darjeeling to the British in 1835. Most of the 13 Anglo-Indian schools here were set up before Independence. The schools boast of alumni from around the world. The former kings of Bhutan and Nepal are alumni of St Joseph’s School. Two Class IX students of St. Augustine’s School, Kurseong, said they took their school bus along with 30 others and came down to Siliguri via Rohini Road. Schoolteachers accompanying them booked bus tickets for the students. “Many of our parents were not able to come at such a short notice. Some senior students from Classes IX and X took permission from parents to travel home. Our teachers accompanied us to Siliguri and booked our tickets,” said a boy from Siwan in Bihar, 600km from here. It takes around eight hours to reach Siwan from Siliguri. “We have decided to take tuition for the lessons that are yet to be taught in school so that we do not face any difficulty when the school reopens,” said the boy. A group of six students from Shillong who study in Dr. Graham’s Home, Kalimpong, was at Bagdogra airport to board a flight for Guwahati. They were accompanied by parent of one of the children. “There are rumours that the strike may stretch for more than a month. If that is true, then students like us who are supposed to appear for ICSE will suffer a lot. When the school reopens, we will be in a hurry to complete our syllabus before the school closes for winter in November-end. The number of teaching days will also be few, given that Durga Puja and Diwali holidays are there in October. School authorities have said they will inform us when the school re-opens,” said Lam Kssiar, a Class IX student of the school. Sanjay Sharma, the father of Sarvesh, a Class IX student of St. Paul’s School, Darjeeling, said he did not want to take any risk. “The situation in the hills is very volatile. I am taking my son back home in Howrah,” he said at Bagdogra airport.