Sahnewal govt schools grapple with staff crunch

Tribune News Service

Shivani Bhakoo

Ludhiana, July 28

The declaration of the results of Class X and XII of Punjab School Education Board (PSEB)-affiliated government schools were declared recently, but many students did not make it to the merit list as compared to private schools.

Teachers claim that shortage of staff at government schools was the major reason behind the poor result of students.

One of such schools is Government Middle School in Chahlan (Sahnewal block). The school caters to 100 students of Class VI-VIII, but there is only one teacher for them.

Despite several requests to the authorities in the Education Department, another teacher has not been appointed to date.

A girl from the nearby village who is a little educated, is requested to cooperate till a permanent teacher comes.

“There is only one permanent teacher here. Had we got some other option, we could have shifted our child to some other school, but it is our helplessness that we have to send our daughter here only,” the parents of the girl said.

There are a few more government schools in the same block, where the strength of students is around 35 to 40 but have four to five teachers.

A teacher from the Democratic Teachers’ Union said: “The problem was that the Education Department is not worried about the future of the children. The authorities only believe in vested interests. If they were really worried about the students, they could have made arrangements to shift teachers where there is an urgent need. But the department doesn’t pay any heed towards the plight of students.”

“This will obviously impact the results of students. How can we bring transformation in the education system when we cannot make such small arrangements? The government claims to make schools smart and bring the Delhi model in the state, but I would request to the government to solve small issues first,” the teacher added.

“The story does not end here. There are several other primary and middle schools in the district, where there are no teachers at all,” the teachers said.

The issue of scarcity of teachers was raised during a meeting of the MLAs with the Deputy Commissioner recently. Despite repeated attempts, the DEO could not be contacted for comments.

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#Punjab School Education Board