Cops called in as teachers boycott evaluation of project

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 22

Teachers today boycotted the evaluation of Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab project going on in the state. DEO (Secondary) had to face the ire of the teachers who got together and boycotted the evaluation of the project. As a result, the police had to intervene keeping in view the agitating nature of the teachers in view of the project and its evaluation.

The teams visited one school each in the 19 blocks and all the teams had to return without evaluation.

District Education Officer Swaranjeet Kaur herself led the team that went for evaluation at district primary school, Manakwal, but the members of the Adhyapak Sangharsh Committee boycotted the team and did not allow them to do the evaluation of the students. Teachers from the nearby schools also gathered at the Manakwal School and nearly 150-200 teachers got together and started raising slogans against the DEO. Police were also called on the spot to keep the situation under control.

Similarly, at Block Primary School, Lalton Kalan, Block Education Officer, Kamaljit Kaur was gheraoed by the teachers and was stopped from doing the evaluation of the students.

Ramanjit Singh Sandhu, member of Adhyapak Sangharsh Committee said there was no need of conducting evaluation for the project and all the teachers are against this. “Not only Ludhiana, but also the teachers from the entire state are against it,” said Sandhu.

Sukhdev Singh, member of Adhayapak Sangharsh Committee said they had been teaching students from the syllabus and then Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab project was launched and the schools were provided kits for the same.

“The material provided under the project is not directly related to what is taught by us in the books. In addition to this, the material provided is not sufficient. For a class of 40 students, the number of cards, posters provided to us is just 10-15. How can we distribute it in the whole class and how will the students gather knowledge from it?” he said.