Parents out to raise standard of education

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, August 30

Striving for quality education, members of the Bhai Kanhaiya Mission are randomly inspecting government schools and pulling up teachers for their “inefficiency and incompetence”.

The mission, launched by SDM Syed Sherish Asgar a few days ago, has been conceived by Parminder Singh, a district guidance counsellor at the Education Department. Parents of government school students and social activists are members of the mission.

“We have done a comparative study of private and government schools and observed that government schoolteachers are paid between Rs 40,000 and Rs 60,000 per month while their private counterparts get a maximum salary of Rs 10,000. Despite this, students of government schools lag behind. So, we decided to form the mission to help improve the standard of education,” said Parminder Singh.

Kamaljit Singh, a member of the mission, said parent-teacher meetings (PTMs) in private schools were elaborate and transparent while those in government institutions were non-starters.

“Parents have stopped attending these meetings (at government schools) as they know their utility value is zero. We have now asked principals to make these PTMs elaborate affairs where teachers can be cross-questioned. Since the government has failed to evolve a mechanism in which a teacher can be accountable, we decided to do it ourselves. The Education Department, on an average, spends Rs 2,000 per child per month in state-owed institutions. Despite this, the results remain poor since there is no accountability,” Jasbir Singh, a social activist.

The initiative has evoked a mixed reaction from teachers. “We agree that the quality of education can improve only if there is a system of checks and balances. We are open to questioning by the members, but they should inform us about their visits in advance,” said Jodh Singh, a political science lecturer at senior secondary school, Kala Nangal.