THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For students, good teachers are their torch-bearers or godfathers. But for this 14-year-old great friend of honey bees, four teachers have become her threats.

Oli Aman Jodha was honoured with Thenmithra award from Farmers’ Association of India for honey bee farming. Her name literally means the queen who for fight for the peace of bees. But she has now has no peace of mind.

Over the past one year, she has not dared to walk in to her school to attend classes, because of them.

It is Wayanad Ambalavayal Government Higher Secondary school 10th standard student Oli Aman Jodha (Fisha Fathima) who is sitting in home and learning school lessons. About 12 teachers had turned against her after an incident.

Oli Aman and her friends had installed beehives in her school with the permission of the principal and PTA in order to educate students and teachers on beekeeping.

After her labour bore fruit, the recognition of Doordarshan Haritha Vidhyalayan programme came calling in November 2017.
Issues began when attempts were allegedly made to give the award to a teacher’s relative in the same school.

Oli gave a complaint to PTA against this. What was in store for her who returned to school with the award was mental torture.
Teachers threatened the girl and her single mother Amiya Tajiya.

“They locked me up in a class room after depicting me as a mentally unstable girl. I tolerated all that but what broke my heart was that they had removed about 30 beehives I had installed at my school; they had destroyed all bee combs too,” she recalls.

After this, Oli’s mother filed a police complaint with the help of PTA. In the investigation conducted, four teachers were found to be guilty and they were subsequently transferred.

However, the teachers, who managed to get stay on transfer orders, started behaving with vengeance against Oli after returning to school.

Once they started mentally harassing and verbally abusing her, she stopped going to school. Now she plans to study, sitting at home and take the public exam in March.

Her wish is to attend Civil Services Exam in future. Oli and her mother who live in a rented house eke out a living by engaging in honeybee farming and conducting classes on beekeeping for research students and others.