Fill more than 30,000 vacancies in Punjab Govt schools on a war footing: Democratic Teachers' Front

Neha Saini

Amritsar, April 26

Despite the recent advertisement inviting applications to fill more than 30,000 vacancies in government schools in Punjab, no new recruitments have been made so far.

The government schools in the state, especially the primary segment, have been facing the shortage of teachers. As a result, several schools have been reportedly struggling to carry out proper teaching and effecting learning process. In Amritsar district, there is reportedly shortage of 500 to 600 teachers in primary schools, while total number of regular teachers overall remains dismal.

The Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) has demanded that the AAP government fulfil its election promise to provide quality education to people and recruit teachers and other staff in government schools on a war footing.

Recently, Education Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer had said that the government would start new recruitments of teachers. DTF state president Vikram Dev Singh said Punjab was facing the worst crisis in primary education.

“There has been no new recruitment of pre-primary and ETT teachers in the last five years. Only recruitment advertisements have been published that have resulted in no action,” he said. Ashwani Awasthi, district president of DTF, said in the Amritsar district alone, there was a shortage of 500 to 600 primary schoolteachers. According to the district Education Department, there are 1,000 teachers, who are regular, and about 700 to 800 contractual teachers. Out of about 9,000 teachers teaching in primary and secondary schools in the district, 6,000 are in secondary schools and 3,000 in primary schools. The district has 864 primary schools but the shortage of teachers has resulted in many single-teacher primary schools facing problems. Recently, a volunteer teacher at a government primary school running at Vareah village in Chogawan block had called upon the authorities to recruit more teachers as the school had only two teachers for 450 students. The shortage of teachers is being felt in secondary and middle schools as well, where subject-specific teaching vacancies have not been filled.

Ashwini Awasthi said according to the official data from May 2021 in the state, 50 per cent of the sanctioned 29,941 posts of ETT teacher are vacant in the state. “The government failed to make permanent adjustments in the number of volunteers and other teachers even in the 8,393 posts in the state. The same is true for Head Teacher and Centre Head Teacher recruitment, of which recruitment of 1,538 Head Teachers has not been completed despite the availability of qualified teachers on the waiting list. As many as 1,904 posts of Head Teacher have been abolished by the previous government despite requirement. Several blocks in the state do not even have assigned Primary Education Officer and the rest of the districts in Punjab are not doing very well,” he said. Several recruitments of 343 lecturers, PTI and 250 posts of art and craft are pending in the middle school.

‘Ignoring teachers in new education policy unbearable’

Amritsar: Eminent educationists participated in the two-day national executive meet on NEP 2020 held at DAV College. A majority of educationists, who spoke on the subject of National Education Policy, 2020, said ignoring teachers in the new education policy is unbearable. The two-day meeting under the banner of All-India Federation of Universities and College Teachers’ Organisation and in collaboration with PCCTU critiqued at large certain aspects of the new education policy and expressed concern over the game being played by the government under the guise of education. Vinay Sofat, president, PCCTU, said the 7th Pay Commission could not be implemented in Punjab, which is a matter of concern. “The government talks about student-specific incline in the new education policy, while it conveniently ignores the teachers,” he said. The session chaired by Dr D Kumar accompanied by Dr Arun Kumar Singh, Dr Brahmved Sharma and Dr Surjit Singh discussed nuances of NEP 2020. “Emphasising on the provision of compulsory teaching in mother tongue till Class V and promotion of teaching in mother tongue till Class VIII and after that higher education, is a welcome step. In education policy, it is appropriate to pay special attention to childhood care and education,” said Dr D Kumar. General Secretary, PCCTU, Prof Arun Kumar said providing equal opportunities for universal access to education is essential for all-round development of individual and society, it should be properly addressed in the education policy. Dr Jaspal Singh Sandhu, VC, GNDU, said inclusion in the curriculum at every level of education to promote Indian life values, traditions and Indian languages was important in building a capable, glorious, self-reliant India. “It is necessary to give holistic and multidisciplinary education at the graduation level mentioned in the policy so that a student has not only mental but also physical, spiritual and moral development,” he said.