Strike to exempt hill schools

Open soon? St Paul’s School in Darjeeling

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Aug. 21: The Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee has decided to exempt schools from the ambit of the statehood agitation, which has led to prolonged strikes in Darjeeling.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the committee on August 18 but it will be announced on August 30 when the committee sits for its next meeting, according to sources.

Boarding schools in the hills started emptying out on August 1, before the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha announced its indefinite strike from August 3.

Earlier, Morcha chief Bimal Gurung had requested schools to send boarders home as the agitation would only intensify.

After Gurung’s request to schools on July 30 to let students leave, boarders from other parts of the hills and Sikkim left. But a large number of students, who are from other countries such as Thailand and far away states stayed back. The schools also adopted a wait-and-watch policy which changed after Gurung’s announcement of an indefinite strike.

All schools here have remained closed from July 29 though boarders were present on the campus.

Although classes were held on August 16 and 17, attendance was sparse.

Sources who attended the joint action committee meeting, which is currently spearheading the Gorkhaland agitation, today confirmed that “there has been a consensus” among the eight outfits to keep educational institutions out of the agitation’s purview.

“There has been a consensus among all the participants at the meeting…. The joint action committee has not yet declared it (the decision) officially,” said a source.

The decision to keep the schools out of the agitation’s purview, sources said, was taken because the parties are aware that the agitation has to be a “long-drawn process”.

A school head said: “We are waiting till an official announcement is made so that we can be sure that there will be no problem once we ask boarders to return.”

The 45 ICSE schools in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong have around 10,000 boarders.

The father of a student of St. Joseph’s School, North Point, who resides in Calcutta, said: “We have booked the tickets for Saturday but we will take the decision after speaking to the school authorities on Friday.”

“We hope that the schools will be exempted. But we have to be able to go to Darjeeling from NJP. If cars are not allowed how would our wards go?,” asked a parent.