Staff of junior classes to teach humanities pupils

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 16

In what seems as an irrational move by the UT Education Department, Junior Basic Training (JBT) teachers, who are supposed to teach classes up to Class V, will now be teaching more than 400 Class XI students of the humanities stream.

To accommodate students who applied for admission to Class XI in the fifth counselling, the department had decided to commence evening shift in the GMSSS-19 and GMSSS-23. The State Projector Director (SS)-cum-Director School Education, Rakesh Kumar Popli, on September 13 issued directions to deploy 10 JBT teachers, five each at both schools.

What’s more surprising is that these JBTs are newly recruited and have no experience of teaching senior secondary classes. However, students in the evening shift hold below 40 per cent marks in Class X and need proficient staff.

Going by the Centre’s rules, a JBT teacher takes Classes from I to V, whereas a Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) can take Classes VI to X and only a Post Graduate Teacher (PGT) is competent to take lessons for Classes XI and XII.

This is not the first time when junior teachers have been asked to take classes, which they are not authorised to take as per the norms. In several government schools, several TGTs and JBT teachers have been taking higher classes from several years.

No senior teacher deputed

A panel of masters/mistresses who have applied for promotion to the post of lecturers as per their respective seniority list for different subjects was created recently by the department. Accordingly, four teachers of history, four of political science and six of home science were listed on the basis of seniority. However, none of these teachers was deputed to evening shift school.

Teachers of government schools are not authorised to speak with the media, however, they condemned the move of the department.

On the condition of anonymity, a teacher said: “The Education Department has not deployed senior TGTs. Rather, they deployed JBT teachers, which is a violation of the norms. Moreover, weak students of those schools will be neglected as inexperience newcomers will teach them.”

Meanwhile, BL Sharma, Education Secretary, did not respond to the query. Rakesh Kumar Popli and District Education Officer Anujit Kaur also did not comment on the issue.

Qualification

As per the Chandigarh recruitment rules, candidates who have acquired the qualification of Bachelor of Education from any NCTE-recognised institution are considered for appointment as a teacher in Classes I to V, provided the person so appointed as a teacher shall mandatorily undergo a six-month bridge course in elementary education recognised by the NCTE within two years of being appointed as a primary teacher.