Punjab school board chairman resigns

Chandigarh, May 25

Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) chairman Balbir Singh Dhol has resigned from his post, an official spokesman said here today.

Dhol, who was appointed as chairman of PSEB in December last year immediately after his retirement as Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officer by the previous Parkash Singh Badal government, quit, a board spokesman said without divulging the reason behind Dhol's resignation.

"Yesterday, sleuths of Punjab vigilance bureau raided the premises of the board and house of Dhol at Mohali," he said.

The raids were conducted in connection with the alleged irregularities in recruitment to various posts in cooperative banks when Dhol was registrar in 2010, he said.

Recently, taking an extremely serious view of the poor Class X board examination results conducted by PSEB, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh issued strict instructions to the education minister to prepare a blueprint for raising the standards of education in the state.

The chief minister has also directed the finance department to make available all necessary funds to the education department for undertaking urgent measures to improve the quality of education and infrastructure in government schools.

Amarinder had spoken to Education Minister Aruna Chaudhary to express dismay over the shocking 15-point dip in students' performance in the PSEB Class X exam, in which over 40 per cent of the students have failed, an official spokesman said.

Around 57 per cent students of class 10 passed the board exam conducted by PSEB, the result of which was declared recently.

The chief minister had said he was very disturbed at the deteriorating standards of education in Punjab, as a result of which "our children are falling by the wayside in the race for good jobs and professional career growth, with most of them even failing to clear the necessary exams for getting into the armed forces".

The fact that only 24 students from government schools had made it to the merit list was a serious cause for concern, said the chief minister, pinning the liability for the poor performance on the education department, which is responsible for maintaining the standards of government schools, as well as the overall quality of education in the state.

Amarinder had earlier ordered several sweeping policy changes to raise the bar of education in Punjab.

After the appalling performance of the students in the Class X Boards, Amarinder had asked the concerned officials to expedite the process of working out the necessary modalities for taking the improvement agenda forward on a war footing. — PTI