Pvt schools show overwhelming dominance in Class X results

As many as 117 students finished in the top-10 merit list of the Class X results announced by Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education on Thursday. Out of these, 97 students are from private schools, while just 20 students from government schools.

Such overwhelming dominance of private school students raises a question why more qualified and well-paid government school teachers are not able to match the results produced by private school teachers, who are paid much less as compared to government school teachers.

While admitting that such disparity in the result would raise a question mark on government schools, teachers point out the constraints they face. According to them, the socially and financially advanced segment of society sends their children to private schools. “School, teachers and parents work collectively on a child in these schools. There’s a collective and coordinated effort to ensure the child does well. In government schools, most parents hardly show any involvement,” said Surender Pundir, an officiating principal in a government school in Sirmaur.

Another government school teacher points out that there’s a shortage of staff in many schools. “We do not have a Hindi teacher for the last one year. Many other schools do not have teachers for other subjects. It impacts the overall result and ranking of the students,” he said. “As far as private schools are concerned, especially the well-established ones, there’s no problem of staff,” he added. Others point out that the teachers in government schools are burdened with non-teaching work, which also affects teaching and efficiency.

Nevertheless, there’s a question mark on the commitment and accountability of a section of government teachers. “Teachers do not show as much involvement as in private schools. There’s prompt action against the teachers not producing result in private schools, which is not the case in government schools,” said a retired school principal. Besides, there’s a problem of absenteeism among teachers in remote areas. Recently, two primary teachers were suspended for locking down the school in a remote area after lunch.

Incidentally, the government has taken initiatives like consolidation of schools and rationalisation of teachers to ensure quality education and adequate staff in its schools. It also banned transfers in the middle of academic session.

“The government recently transferred over 400 TGT teachers as part of the rationalisation process, but the order was withdrawn. Political pressure was one major reason among other factors behind the withdrawal of the order,” a teacher said while pointing out the shortcomings in these initiatives.

“Also, the transfer window was supposed to be of around 15 days at the start of the session, but it’s still continuing. These are good initiatives but they need to be pushed through resolutely in a transparent manner,” he added.