ANGUL Acute shortage of teachers is affecting studies in one of the oldest high schools of the State, Mahendra High School at Athmallik. The situation is so grim that about 57 students who took admission in various classes in the current session have taken transfer to other schools. The piqued parents in a meeting on July 23 threatened to lock the school indefinitely from July 31 if the government fails to post teachers in the school by today. The apathy and callous attitude of the Circle Inspector (CI) of Dhenkanal is apparent with all pleas of the parents in the last five years for appointment of the minimum number of required teachers falling on deaf ears. "The strength of the students in the classes from VI to X is 715. However, there are only six regular teachers as against the normal requirement of 29," said a parent. The parents association provided five contractual teachers and paid them salaries from their own pockets. However, it did not solve the problem, which has made a dent into the fame of the school. It is also noteworthy that the school is in the constituency of Transport and Commerce Minister Sanjeeb Sahu but no efforts are being made by the political leadership to address such an important issue. On the other hand, Sub-Collector Umakanta Tripathy said that he had written to the CI of Dhenkanal to do the needful.