Irked at not being able to even get enough sleep, students of Gowtham Model School in Hyderabad staged a protest against the administration of the institute for conducting classes for 12 hours a day, from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm.
The protesting students, outside the school's Chaitanyapuri branch, alleged that they even had to go for tutions after school, and this left them sleep-deprived.
In a video doing the rounds on social media, one of the students narrates his daily schedule.
“Once we reach home we are asked to go for tuition by our parents. By the time we get back from there it is late in the night. Then again the next day, we have to get up by 5.30 am to reach the school at 6.30 am. We hardly get time to sleep," the student was quoted as saying.
However, school principal Narasimharaju claimed that the official timing of the school was 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, telling the Times of India, " Since parents of few children come to pick them up late by 6pm, we insist them to stay back on campus for security reasons. However, I have intimated the issues raised by the protesting students to authorities at our head office in West Marredpally. A team is likely to visit the school on Monday. We shall individually speak to students to ensure that all their issues are addressed."
This protest also comes in the backdrop of Telangana Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari saying that the state had issued show cause notices to 194 junior colleges for violation of guidelines issued by the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE)
The Deputy Chief Minister said that the BIE conducted an inquiry, and found that daily hectic schedules, lack of holidays, frequent weekly tests and lack of proper facilities in hostels were some of the leading causes leading to stress and suicides among the students.