Over 100 guardians of students of a state-aided English medium madrasa in Malda confined the headmaster for two-and-a-half hours on Friday and demonstrated in front of him, alleging irregular classes and inadequate infrastructure.

Police had to intervene to restore normality at the madrasa, which is the only English-medium institution of its kind in this district.

In 2017, the English-medium madrasa was opened at Chandan Park area in ward 25 of Malda town. Admissions started next year. Since then, a higher class is added every year as students get promoted.

As of now, there are around 1,000 students who study from Classes I to VII.

“Over the past few months, classes have become irregular at the institution. Our children come to the madrasa but there are hardly any classes. We fear this will leave a poor impact on our children's academics, especially as they are getting promoted to higher classes,” said a protesting parent.

Around 11am on Friday, as the institution opened, aggrieved guardians entered the chamber of headmaster Afrozzaman Haque and accused him of failing to run the madrasa properly. Haque had to stay in his chamber till he addressed the issue, the guardians said.

Haque told newspersons later that such a situation cropped up because many teachers had not been paid for months now.

According to him, there are 20 teachers here. Among them, four, including him, were directly appointed by the state. Three others were posted here on deputation from other schools. One is a guest teacher.

“The remaining 12 teachers were hired on contract by an NGO although their remuneration is paid by the directorate of state madrasa education. Each of these contractual teachers is supposed to get a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 but the NGO pays them only Rs 8,500. For the past 10 months, these 12 teachers are not even getting that,” said a source.

The guardians pointed out that the Malda-Manikchak state highway runs near the school.

“The students often rush towards the highway and the sole guard of the school can't control them. Moreover, even his payment is due,” a guardian said.

The headmaster admitted that the grievances of the guardians were not baseless.

“But I am helpless. Whenever I ask teachers to take classes, they ask about their money. What can I do?” he said.

As protests continued, Englishbazar police reached the spot and spoke with the guardians. The protest stopped at 1.30pm.

Later in the day, the headmaster said the additional district magistrate (zilla parishad) had called him up to discuss the issue soon.