Education Department hardens stand on allotting science stream to govt schools

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service 

Faridkot, June 22

The Education Department has hardened its stand on allotting the science stream to government senior secondary schools. 

The development follows poor enrolment in the science stream. 

Krishan Kumar, Secretary, School Education Department, said, “Of the 549 government schools having the science stream, 14 have no student. Before seeking the science stream in the school, the principal has to certifying that there will be at least 20 students, who have opted for science in Class XI and XII together.”

However in the first year, there can be only 15 students as only one class will start. Besides, the village panchayats, demanding to open the science stream, will certify that there is adequate infrastructure in the school, he added. 

The secretary said it had been noticed that in many schools, despite having teachers, there were either no student or very few students. 

In case, these schools do not come up with the adequate strength of students during 2018-19, a decision will be taken by the government on the basis of the report received from district education officers (DEOs) as to whether the stream will continue in the subsequent years starting from academic year 2019-20, he added.

There are 58 schools which have less than 20 students. School principals have been advised to increase the strength in all these schools and bring it to at least 20 by June 30.

If the number of students does not increase, further action will be taken by the department to shift these groups to some other schools, said the Secretary in a letter to all DEOs in the state.

There are a number of lecturers in physics, mathematics, biology and chemistry, who are posted in schools where either there are no students in the science stream or it has been closed or shifted. 

A separate counselling would be organised by the department in Mohali and new stations will be provided to such teachers based on their seniority, said the Secretary.

Despite the department is receiving requests from various panchayats to start the science group in their schools, no group will start after July 15. 

All new applications will be considered for the next academic year in 2019. 

Any decision to start the new science group for academic session 2019-20 will be taken by March 31, 2019.

The department will separately rationalise the posts of other lecturers through a transparent process in case an adequate number of students are not enrolled in their respective schools, said the Secretary.