Teachers to counter ‘negative propaganda’

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, October 21

Even as Krishan Kumar, Education Secretary, and several teacher unions continue to be at loggerheads over various issues, the latter have formed an eight-member committee comprising English teachers to counter the “negative propaganda” unleashed against them by the “officer’s loyalists” on social media.

Leaders met at Patiala today where this decision was taken. However, the names of the committee members are being kept under wraps.

As many as 20,000 pamphlets and 10,000 posters, highlighting the “high handedness” of the Education Secretary have also been printed. They have been dispatched to 22 districts of the state for further distribution.

Union leaders claimed that they were peeved over a particular post where it had been stated that “leaders hardly work in their capacity as teachers. Past results of their respective schools prove that the pass percentage remains abysmally low.”

Krishan Kumar said he was not instigating anybody to write posts on social media. “Why will I do so and what purpose will it solve? Moreover, I will never stoop to such a level,” he said.

Balkar Singh Baltoha, English lecturer in a Tarn Taran school, claimed that his school had attained a 62 per cent pass percentage in Class XII.

“However, the social media post claims that all 57 students of Class XII have failed in English. We have evidence that the Education Secretary is instigating all this following which we have now launched an all-out drive through posters and pamphlets against it. We will not be cowed down by such negative propaganda,” said Baltoha.