Tension at exam centre

Lovleen Bains

Doraha, February 22

A teacher deployed as Block Master Trainer (BMT) to supervise an exam to be held under Padho Punjab Padhao Punjab Scheme of the government, today fell unconscious while the other two BMTs quit on the spot when the government officials asked them to conduct the exam in the wake of tense situation which arose at Government Elementary School, Araichan, today as the teachers of the school boycotted the exam and held a protest outside the school today.

Trouble brewed as Block Primary Education Officer (BPEO) Krishna Devi, along with her team reached the school for the conduct of the exam but the teachers of the school refused to invigilate the exam and in turn sat on dharna outside and began to raise slogans against the Education Secretary Krishan Kumar and BPEO Krishan Devi.

Press secretary of the Teacher’s Sangharsh Committee Bikramjit Singh Kaddon shared that they had already decided to boycott the conduct. “When the team reached the school premises, we went outside and sat on protest dharna as we are against this system introduced by the government. We asked the officials to wait till 28th of this month as our meeting has been fixed with the Chief Minister on the date. But they did not listen and we went out.

Following this, the DEO, Deputy DEO, district coordinator, SDM Payal, Tehsildar, DSP Payal, SHO Payal and SHO Doraha arrived on the spot and asked the BMTs and CMTs ( Cluster Master Trainer) to continue with the conduct. But as the situation became tense, the school children got scared and began to cry. One of the BMTs Deepak Kumar fell unconscious and had to be hospitalised, while the other CMT Beant Singh and BMT Daljit Singh refused to invigilate the exam,” he added.

BMT Daljit Singh shared that they were not able to tolerate the manner in which they were forced to conduct the exam while the kids were terrified and weeping as their teachers were not available in front of the and the police force had gathered in big number.

Press Secretary Bikramjit Singh Kaddon, Harwinder Singh Bilga, Balraj Ghaloti, Jagmohan Ghudani and Satvir Rauni were chiefly among those who protested against the arbitrary attitude of the government in conducting the exam under Paro Punjab Padhao Punjab Scheme. The teachers of primary and secondary schools of Doraha block later gathered at village Rampur to burn the effigy of Education Secretary Krishan Kumar and BPEO Krishna Devi.

BPEO Krishna Devi shared that the exam was then conducted by Deputy DEO Kuldip Singh though she requested the DEO to postpone the same as the children were under pressure and were in state of panic as they saw the police entering the school premises.

DEO Balbir Singh shared with the media that the government has initiated a good move in testing the skills of the students from Classes I to V by playway method and CMTs and BMTs have especially underwent training under this project. The graph of education under this scheme has also gone up but the teachers argue that the syllabus of the project is different from the one being traditionally taught by them. So they boycotted the exam today.