Shillong, April 1 A school in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills district was closed by village authorities and members of a students' union for not offering Khasi language as a subject, officials said on Wednesday.
Madan Hindi Patshala Secondary School in the Madanrting area was asked to close after complaints that the lack of Khasi instruction was preventing local students from taking the subject in their matriculation exams.
Local headman and village secretary, accompanied by Khasi Students' Union (KSU) leaders, visited the school on Wednesday and, after learning from the principal that the Khasi subject was not offered, entered the classrooms and asked students to leave for the day before instructing the school to suspend operations, sources said.
They also warned that the school would be permanently closed if the demand to offer the Khasi language was not met.
Village authorities said they had petitioned the school's managing committee on the issue last year, urging it to offer Khasi as a subject.
They added that the managing committee had given a written assurance to implement the subject from the current academic session, but failed to do so.
Members of the KSU and village leaders maintained that the lack of Khasi puts students at a disadvantage, particularly in meeting the requirements for local language proficiency in board exams, and stressed that the decision to close the school was made after repeated attempts to communicate with the school management yielded no results.
This development comes against the backdrop of a recent state government notification making proficiency in the local language mandatory for recruitment under the District Selection Committee.
Officials said that candidates are required to pass a qualifying paper in the respective local language to be eligible for such jobs.
School authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the matter.