Jalandhar, December 6
The anger displayed by parents of students studying at a local school yesterday hints at a much wider crisis of staff shortage across schools in the district.
While the dearth of teachers in the district government schools (especially those in remote areas) has robbed students of their right to education already, the education department has aggravated the crisis by picking up teachers from schools and employing them for official jobs at the DEO office etc.
The schools in the district would have been about 160 teachers stronger had the education department not deputed educators from many schools and deputed them for field or clerical jobs.
Over 100 block resource persons in the primary and senior secondary sectors and many others working for the Parvesh Project have left the respective schools, from where these teachers have been picked up, clamouring for staff.
There are teachers who have been deputed at the DEO office or as resource persons since the 90s and others, more recently, whose respective schools have been adversely affected and in some cases destabilised due to their absence.
While there are three DRPs (district resource persons) - for maths, English and social studies - for upper primary education in the district, for primary education, there is one DRP and two assistant DRPs.
The number of BRPs (block resource persons) for both primary and upper primary education in the district varies from block to block.
With the number of BRPs varying per block (there are 19 blocks in the district) the number of BRPs for primary and secondary education alone reaches a little over 100.
These BRPs and DRPs are posted as per various subjects and components like textbooks, SMC (school management committee), IED (inclusive education), RTE, among others. The teachers posted as resource persons include ETT and master cadre teachers.
Except these, a host of other teachers have been posted as PBCs (Parvesh Block Coordinators) under the Parvesh Project, started to give a fillip to education.
Sixty teachers have been employed as Parvesh Coordinators.
While sources also claim a strong political backing also causes many teachers to voluntarily secure positions as resource persons, there are others who say the education department itself doesn't intend to send these teachers back to the jobs they were initially hired for.
District science teacher Sanjiwan Dadwal says, "A number of jobs do not require any dedicated personnel. Works like DISE reports and textbook distribution are wound up in 15 days to one month. Teachers can be deputed for 15 days for that. But in gross violation of the RTE Act, they are employed all through the year on hefty salaries as their schools suffer, even if it means they just have to sit idle. A number of these also include people who never visit schools on a regular basis even if it is their job. This practice should have been stopped long ago."
Many schools have also written to DEOs time and again but have not received any response or staff in teachers on deputation.
DEO (secondary) Neelam Kumari says, "While the issue of BRPs not going to the field, if that is true shall be looked into, I generally believe the department has profited from these resource persons. Schools are scared about doing their jobs due to these field workers and it helps in constant review of the grassroots level situation."
Unfair use
About 160 teachers are working as district resource persons, block resource persons and Parvesh Block Coordinators. However, despite schools suffering, education department unwilling to recall them
The anger displayed by parents of students studying at a local school yesterday hints at a much wider crisis of staff shortage across schools in the district.
While the dearth of teachers in the district government schools (especially those in remote areas) has robbed students of their right to education already, the education department has aggravated the crisis by picking up teachers from schools and employing them for official jobs at the DEO office etc.
The schools in the district would have been about 160 teachers stronger had the education department not deputed educators from many schools and deputed them for field or clerical jobs.
Over 100 block resource persons in the primary and senior secondary sectors and many others working for the Parvesh Project have left the respective schools, from where these teachers have been picked up, clamouring for staff.
There are teachers who have been deputed at the DEO office or as resource persons since the 90s and others, more recently, whose respective schools have been adversely affected and in some cases destabilised due to their absence.
While there are three DRPs (district resource persons) - for maths, English and social studies - for upper primary education in the district, for primary education, there is one DRP and two assistant DRPs.
The number of BRPs (block resource persons) for both primary and upper primary education in the district varies from block to block.
With the number of BRPs varying per block (there are 19 blocks in the district) the number of BRPs for primary and secondary education alone reaches a little over 100.
These BRPs and DRPs are posted as per various subjects and components like textbooks, SMC (school management committee), IED (inclusive education), RTE, among others. The teachers posted as resource persons include ETT and master cadre teachers.
Except these, a host of other teachers have been posted as PBCs (Parvesh Block Coordinators) under the Parvesh Project, started to give a fillip to education.
Sixty teachers have been employed as Parvesh Coordinators.
While sources also claim a strong political backing also causes many teachers to voluntarily secure positions as resource persons, there are others who say the education department itself doesn't intend to send these teachers back to the jobs they were initially hired for.
District science teacher Sanjiwan Dadwal says, "A number of jobs do not require any dedicated personnel. Works like DISE reports and textbook distribution are wound up in 15 days to one month. Teachers can be deputed for 15 days for that. But in gross violation of the RTE Act, they are employed all through the year on hefty salaries as their schools suffer, even if it means they just have to sit idle. A number of these also include people who never visit schools on a regular basis even if it is their job. This practice should have been stopped long ago."
Many schools have also written to DEOs time and again but have not received any response or staff in teachers on deputation.
DEO (secondary) Neelam Kumari says, "While the issue of BRPs not going to the field, if that is true shall be looked into, I generally believe the department has profited from these resource persons. Schools are scared about doing their jobs due to these field workers and it helps in constant review of the grassroots level situation."
Unfair use
About 160 teachers are working as district resource persons, block resource persons and Parvesh Block Coordinators. However, despite schools suffering, education department unwilling to recall them
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