Nearly 720 students of an English-medium school in Durgapur have been suspended for taking private tuitions from the teachers of the same school.

While the administration of St Xavier’s School has suspended the students — from Class V to Class X — for one month, it has not taken any action against the teachers.

On Wednesday, the school administration asked the students to write a note in their diary stating that they will not take tuition from their school teachers and the defaulters would be suspended from the school. Today, when they reached school, students who took tuitions were asked to return home.

Later in the day, the guardians of the students gathered in front of the headmaster’s room and demanded that their wards be allowed to attend the school. Jainul Haque, a parent and the head of the Burdwan District Guardian Forum, complained that the teachers, who were giving private tuitions, were not punished by the school authorities. “The teachers influence the students to take private tuition. If the teaching-learning process in the school is good, then no one will take the help of tuitions,” Haque said.

The headmaster of the school, K K Dewasi, said that the step was taken to help the guardians in preventing discrimination between the students. “There are students who can take multiple tuitions and there are many who can’t. I want to stop such discrimination,” the headmaster said. He said that since a majority of students take tuition their results are always good.

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