Balasore, June 25: The salary of the Headmistress of Mahaveer Nodal School at Mathasahi in Balasore was withheld after class-III students of the school failed to recite the multiplication table 3  before the visiting School and Mass Education Minister, Sameer Ranjan Dash on Saturday.

Sources said Dash visited the Mahaveer Nodal School when he came across a poor state of teaching in the school. Nobody from the entire class of Std-III could utter the multiplication table of 3 correctly.

Disgusted with the failure of the students, the Minister fixed the responsibilities on the class teacher and the Headmistress. Following this, he issued a show-cause notice to the Headmistress. At the same time, the salaries of the concerned teachers will be withheld.

Speaking to the media persons, Dash said, “I have asked the District Education Officer ( DEO) to issue a show-cause notice to the Headmistress and hold their salary payment until the class III students are able to recite the multiplication tables.”