Teachers’ share woes via WhatsApp

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, April 15

Education Secretary Krishan Kumar had asked the District Education Officers (DEO’s) on April 13, to prepare a list of the teachers who had boycotted government programmes and are not following the orders of the state government in schools.

Teachers under the banner of the Sarkari School Sikhiya Bachao Manch, Punjab, in the state in return have decided not to even co-operate with DEO’s and have adopted a different way of voicing their concern. The teachers across the state are sending a whatsapp text to the Education Secretary Krishan Kumar with their name and name of the school they belong to along with their demands. They are even boycotting their participation in a workshop to be organised for the teachers of pre-primary classes.

They had also stopped teams of the Education Department’s Block and Cluster Master Trainers from visiting their respective schools to review the project — ‘Parho Punjab, Parhao Punjab’.

Adamant on their stand, the teachers said they would continue to boycott the work and would gherao the Moti Mehal in Patiala on April 22.

They also said, “We are sending personal texts through whatsapp to let the Education Department know about our unity and their ill-policies. However, no loss to the studies of students will occur as we are taking classes regularly.”

As per sources, around 20,000 such messages from teachers across state have thronged Krishan Kumar’s whatsapp.

Where teachers have clearly demanded regularisation of contractual employees’ services and do away with the seven-year transfer policy.

Nishant Kumar, a teacher and a member of the manch, said, “Many teachers under the manch had prevented the teams from entering their respective schools. In fact, they were denied entry across the state. Notices have been issued to many teachers. So far, a detailed report of the teachers has been asked from DEO’s. We have collectively decided and announced for this boycott on April 2. Following which, now we all have sent texts with our personal information to Krishan Kumar.”

“Last Tuesday, we received a notice in which we had been asked to attend the workshop. We have collectively decided to boycott that too and had not sent our confirmation,” he added.

He further said, “We will continue to boycott the work, till our demands are fulfilled. We will organise a huge rally at the Moti Mehal in Patiala.”

Despite repeated attempts Education Secretary Krishan Kumar could not be contacted.