Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab in limbo

Naina Mishra

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 8

The much hyped project “Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab”seems to have taken a back seat due to paucity of teachers in government primary schools.

According to the data provided by the District Education Department, as many as 270 posts for Elementary Teacher Training (ETT) are lying vacant.

As a result, pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) at some government schools has gone up to 60:1, which is a stark violation of Right to Education (RTE) Act that lays down 30:1 as PTR for primary level.

“On one hand some schools have vacant posts of teachers but on the other hand there are schools which have surplus posts as well. The rationalisation policy will fill space in schools where there are fewer teachers from schools with surplus teachers. Unfortunately, the policy is being opposed by unions,” said Himanshu Garg, ETT at Government Primary School, Giaspura.

He said, “It is because of dearth of teachers that PTR has been affected. In some schools, a single teacher is handling 60-80 students. It will naturally hamper learning abilities of students. As many as 15 posts are lying vacant in our school. Vacant ETT posts are just one part, what about cluster master trainer, block master trainer who were deputed on the state project? They are also not teaching in schools and hence the vacancies might be even more.”

According to data available on ePunjab portal, there are approximately 1,000 students enrolled at Government Primary School, Dhandari Khurd, which has just 17 teachers. At least 10 posts are lying vacant in this school, thereby increasing the PTR to 60.

Similar is the picture at Government Primary School, Dhandari Kalan, where there are 10 teachers for 575 students thus making a PTR of 50:1. The school has only nine rooms, which is why the PTR is not maintained.

Sukhdev Singh, Headteacher, Government Primary School, Dhandari Kalan said, “We have a shortage of 3 teachers in our school. Besides, there is also dearth of rooms because of which we have adjusted 60 students in each class. The government wants result but they are not ready to provide basic infrastructure. We keep enrolling students every year without teachers. Will project yield results like this?”