Government schools to be teacher surplus in 2 yrs: Minister

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, march 3

The state government has taken a serious note of the sorry state of affairs prevailing in the government schools of Ludhiana district, where at least 39 government schools were without even a single teacher while not less than 1,742 posts of teaching staff of various cadres were also lying vacant.

Taking cognisance of the report, “Thirty-nine government schools sans teachers in Ludhiana district”, which appeared in these columns on Thursday, the Education Minister, Harjot Singh Bains, on Friday announced to make all the government schools in the state teacher surplus within the next two years.

Will ensure early resolution

I will ensure that the state government comes to the rescue of our schools and fill all teaching and non-teaching vacancies at the earliest. We are committed to uplifting the standard of govt schools and provide quality education to our children, especially those who cannot afford it in private institutions. —Sanjeev Arora, Rajya Sabha Mp

The announcement was made after the Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana, Sanjeev Arora, took up the matter with Bains and impressed upon him to fill the large number of vacant posts in the government schools of Ludhiana.

Acceding to the request of Arora, the Education Minister assured to fill the vacancies in the government schools of Ludhiana on priority basis.

Speaking with The Tribune, the Rajya Sabha MP said he has apprised the Education Minister about the present situation of the government schools in Ludhiana district and has urged him to pay personal attention towards filling up almost 15 per cent of the total posts, which were presently lying vacant here.

“He told me that the present state of affairs in the government schools across the state was the result of the non-performance of the previous governments, which failed to fill the vacancies or uplift the standard of the government educational institutions, where lakhs of students, mostly from the lower strata of the society were enrolled,” Arora shared.

The Education Minister further disclosed the MP that the previous government has left almost 33 per cent posts of the teachers vacant in the government schools of the state.

“We have already recruited 10,000 teachers in less than one year of our rule and the process to hire 6,000 more tutors is in the advanced stage of completion,” Bains told Arora.

The MP also drew the attention of the Education Minister towards the non-existence of sweepers and watchmen in any of the total 992 government primary schools in the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population.

He further apprised Bains that at least 150 government schools in Ludhiana were having a single teacher each to cater to the entire lot of students in their respective institutions.

This was despite the fact that over 1,100 elementary teachers were provided to Ludhiana district after 6,635 new recruitments were made in July last year.

The situation had become bad to worse with the retirement of 14 block primary education officers (BPEOs) since December 31 last following which the primary schools were lacking proper monitoring.

The report had highlighted that 35 primary and 4 upper primary schools were teacher-less in Ludhiana district, which included 2 in Dehlon-1 block, 4 in Dehlon-2, 2 each in Doraha and Jagraon, 3 in Khanna-1, 1 each in Khanna-2 and Machhiwara-2, 2 in Mangat-2, 1 in Mangat-3, 4 each in Pakhowal and Raikot, 6 in Sidhwan Bet-1, and 3 primary schools were without even a single teacher in Sidhwan Bet-2 block.

Among the teacher-less upper primary schools, the maximum of 2 were having no teacher in Dehlon-2 block, and 1 each were running without any tutor in Machhiwara-1 and Raikot blocks.

The 132 government primary schools, which were running with a single teacher, included maximum 19 institutions in Machhiwara-1 block, 13 each in Machhiwara-2, Mangat-3 and Sidhwan Bet-1, 12 in Sidhwan Bet-2, 11 in Dehlon-2, 7 in Samrala, 6 each in Doraha, Pakhowal and Sudhar, 5 each in Dehlon-1, Khanna-1 and Raikot, 4 in Khanna-2, 3 in Mangat-1 and one such elementary institution was located in Mangat-2 block.

Among the 18 upper primary schools with a single teacher, the maximum of 3 each institutions were in Machhiwara-1 and Sidhwan Bet-1 blocks, 2 each in Khanna-1 and Sudhar, and 1 each such school was situated in Dehlon-1, Dehlon-2, Doraha, Khanna-2, Machhiwara-2, Mangat-2, Pakhowal and Samrala blocks.

In this way, as many as 189 government schools in the district were either without even a single teacher or were running with a single teacher. These included 35 primary and 4 upper primary institutions without even a single teacher and 132 primary and 18 upper primary with a single teacher each.

Vacant posts

As many as 1,742 posts of the total 11,563 sanctioned posts of teachers in Ludhiana district were also lying vacant with 9,821 tutors running the affairs of a total of 1,525 government schools, which included 992 primary, 191 senior secondary, 177 middle and 165 high schools.

The vacancies included 40 posts of principal, 94 headmaster/ headmistress, 158 lecturers, 979 master cadre, 37 computer faculty, 41 CHT, 65 HT, and 328 posts of JBT teachers in the primary cadre were lying vacant.

Filled recently

Ludhiana district had got the lion’s share of 1,111 teachers of the total 6,635 tutors hired by the state government in July last year. Of these, 10 teachers had already left the district after being transferred out.

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