Students union protests transfer of DIET teachers

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 23

Members of the Punjab Students Union (PSU) staged a protest at Deon village against the Education Department for transferring teachers from the District Institute for Education and Teaching (DIET) centre in Bathinda recently.

To express their anger, around 100 students gathered outside the District Institute for Education and Teaching centre at Deon and burnt an effigy of Education Minister Om Prakash Soni.

The protesters raised slogans against the department and the government alleging that irrational transfers of teachers would affect studies of hundreds of students studying in DIET centres across the state.

Holding posters that criticised the recent decision of transferring DIET teachers, students decried the “indifferent” approach of the department and said if adequate arrangements with regard to filling vacant posts were not made and irrational transfers of teachers were not cancelled then they would intensify their protest.

Talking to Bathinda Tribune, Sangeeta Rani, president of the Punjab Students Union, said, “Against the requirement of 20 teachers, the DIET centre in Bathinda is running with three teachers currently and one of them will retire in September this year. As per the scheme, every District Institute for Education and Teaching centre must have at least 14 junior and 6 senior cadre teachers. But the centre here was running with only eight teachers and five of them were transferred recently. There are 11 subjects and 200 students at the centre but with only three teachers now, the quality of education is compromised.”

“Short-staffed, teachers at the centre, apart from taking more lectures, are also burdened with clerical work. Moreover, seats of senior teachers have been lying vacant for a long time,” she added.

Transfers to affect studies

• The protesters raised slogans against the department and the government alleging that irrational transfer of teachers would affect studies of hundreds of students studying in DIET centres across the state.  
• Holding posters that criticised the recent decision of transferring DIET teachers, students decried the "indifferent" approach of the department and said if adequate arrangements with regard to filling vacant posts were not made and irrational transfer of teachers were not cancelled, then they would intensify their protest.