District master cadre teachers waiting for their posting orders

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Amritsar, July 27

Math and Science teachers recruited under the 4161 Master Cadre scheme, which has been going on for almost two years, have demanded that the state government allot them their respective stations for which they have been waiting for the past one month.

The Chief Minister had distributed appointment letters to these teachers on January 5 this year but most of them have not been able to attend their duties in schools despite receiving orders again in the month of May after merit revision. While some teachers of English, Punjabi and Hindi have been allotted their stations, teachers of Math and Science are still waiting for their orders. Raising the issue with the education department, the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) has strongly protested over the delay in station selection process, demanding the release of appointment letters for the remaining subjects (Math and Science).

DTF state president Vikram Dev Singh stated that the station selection process was started by the department from July 5, 2022. “The teachers of Hindi, Punjabi, Social Education and English subjects have been sent to their schools after station selection, to counter the acute shortage of teachers in these subjects. But of this 4161 recruitment, about 1,800 teachers of Math and Science have not been allotted their stations till now because of which there is resentment among them,” said Vikramjeet Singh.

DTF district unit head Ashwani Awasthi said on the one hand, the quality of education is getting affected due to lack of teachers in government schools and on the other, thousands of teachers of Math and Science subjects who received induction training from May 8-31 have been forced to sit at home. “The government and the education department have an unwarranted attitude. They need to understand that to counter the shortage of teachers in schools, especially in core subjects, teachers recruited under due process have to be posted at stations where the student strength is good,” said Awasthi.

On an average, the student-teacher ratio in government schools of Punjab is 30:1 while there are many schools with a student strength of 40-45 per section with only one teacher taking an average of 36 periods in a week.