No principal, no lecturers but Moga school gets 5 shining plaques under Punjab govt’s ‘Sikhya Kranti’

However, the Government Senior Secondary School, Jalalabad East in Dharamkot doesn’t have a regular principal for more than two years, and not a single lecturer for class 11 and 12. All four posts for lecturers are lying vacant. While the school does not offer science and commerce streams for class 11 and 12, all four posts of lecturers for humanities which it offers are also lying vacant.

Kamaljit Kaur, the maths teacher who holds additional charge of the incharge at the Jalalabad school, said that they installed five plaques for inaugurations as per orders of the education department, one each for three classrooms, a lab and a boundary wall.

However, it has been two years now that the school does not have a regular principal, and master cadre teachers (who teach classes 6 to 10) are now teaching class 11 and 12 as all four posts of lecturers are lying vacant. The school only offers humanities stream but all four posts of English, Punjabi, political science and history lecturers are lying vacant.

“We have raised our demand to have lecturers with the education department but the posts are yet to be filled. So, the master cadre teachers are filling-in for lecturers as of now,” said Kaur. The school has over 400 students, including nearly 80 students in class 11 and 12.

Contacted, local AAP MLA Dhos said that the lack of principals and teachers was an issue in many schools in his constituency, and he has brought it to the notice of the education minister. “The previous governments did nothing to improve the condition of government schools. The AAP government is making best efforts to fill that gap. The minister has promised that the posts in schools will be filled soon,” Dhos said.

AAP MLA Dhos laid five foundation stones in the school in a single day.

Recently, during the Punjab Vidhan Sabha budget session, Dhos while highlighting the issue of lack of doctors and health facilities in his constituency, had said that “it feels like living in Pakistan.”

Another AAP MLA, requesting anonymity, said that while the government’s move to hold a drive for inaugurating school infrastructure was a good move, the decision to get separate plaques installed for routine projects such as “repaired toilets, boundary walls etc” should have been avoided.
“On the ground, it is an embarrassment for us to unveil plaques which read that a toilet was repaired and a boundary wall was refurbished. These are minor, routine works which did not require this ribbon cutting and plaque unveiling. It should have been done only for new and major projects,” said the MLA.

Toilet repair plaque faces backlash

In Barnala district on Wednesday, AAP’s Bhadaur MLA Labh Singh Ugoke inaugurated a plaque for a repaired toilet at government senior secondary school, Ghunam, and the photo of it went viral on social media. The plaque reads that the toilets were repaired and dedicated to the school under the guidance of CM Bhagwant Mann, education minister Harjot Bains and MLA Ugoke.

The foundation stone for toilet repair work in a Barnala school that faced backlash

Teachers and Opposition leaders questioned if this was the “Sikhya Kranti” being showcased by the AAP government. Senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia, posting a photo of the plaque, wrote: “Is the renovation of toilets an educational revolution? Punjabis will always remember this education revolution in future.”

“There is a limit to shamelessness BhagwantMann,” wrote former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal. “This party called AAP had promised an end to VIP culture and was against the practice of laying foundation stones. But today it is laying stones for repairing toilets. Till today in my political career, I have not seen a party laying stones for repairing toilets. This is the badlaav that was all left for Punjabis to see,” wrote Simarjeet Singh Bains, a Congress leader and formerly the chief of Lok Insaaf Party.

“Presenting the routine repair works as an education model is what the AAP is all about. This is their Foundation Stone Kranti,” wrote Congress leader Pargat Singh.

“Have you ever seen such badlaav and development in the past 70 years? The school education has been reduced to a joke,” posted teachers body Democratic Teachers Front (DTF).

Education minister inaugurates projects in border districts

Punjab education minister Harjot Singh Bains Wednesday inaugurated development projects worth Rs 4.25 crore in the border districts of Amritsar and Tarn Taran under the “Sikhya Kranti” initiative.

Bains inaugurated works worth Rs 32.02 lakh, including seven renovated classrooms and a toilet block worth Rs 23.38 lakh at Government Senior Secondary School (Girls), Tapiala, and a new classroom and toilet block worth Rs 8.64 lakh at Government Primary School, Tapiala in the Rajasansi assembly constituency. Additionally, he opened three classrooms, constructed with the cost of Rs 48.7 lakh, at Government Senior Secondary School, Jheeta Kalan, and a boundary wall with a toilet block established with the cost of Rs 8.14 lakh at Government Elementary School, Jheeta Kalan under the Attari assembly constituency.

He also announced a grant of Rs 29.32 lakh for the construction of two classrooms, a basketball court, and a toilet block at Government Senior Secondary School (Girls), Mahan Singh Gate, in the Amritsar East assembly constituency.

Bains also visited schools near the international border in Khemkaran (Tarn Taran), inaugurating Rs 3.07 crore worth of infrastructure projects, including smart classrooms, science labs, and boundary walls.