Less audience irks AAP MLA Chetan Jouramajra, lashes out at teachers: ‘You could not even arrange for 50 chairs, will complain to CM’

However, soon after Jouramajra was called on stage to deliver the speech, he lost his temper and lashed out at the teachers for “inadequate” arrangements and said, “You could not even get 50 odd chairs installed here for people to sit? What more will you do?” He also threatened teachers from the stage, “Today itself, a written complaint against you all will be submitted to the CM and education minister… all of you A to Z.”

Jouramajra also reprimanded teachers from the stage over indiscipline and questioned why students were strolling during the event.

According to the teary-eyed school principal Harjot Kaur, what irked the minister was the low attendance of parents to listen to his speech. “But how were we at fault? The minister’s arrival time was 11.30 but he came around 12.30. More than half the parents had till then left. Teachers and students were all present to listen to him but he just lashed out at us without even listening to us once,” she said.

Jouramajra while inaugurating a boundary wall at School of Eminence, Samana, Monday (Express Photo)

In the video of the incident, Jouramajra could be purportedly heard saying: “Kinne bachhe gair haazar han? Kinne teachers baithe ne ethe? Kyu absent han eh dasso.. Eh koi plan kitta programme hai tuhada? Bilkul fail programme hai tuhada.. ki karde ho tussi ethe? Jehra vi bachha baahar hai ohdi absent laayo. Eh school thodi hai.. school aali gall hi nahi hai. Ehne paise sarkaar laa rahi hai. Tussi 50 kursiyaan ni laa sake hor taan ki karoge tussi… Gallan karde hon vaddiyan vaddiyan… Hai koi system tuhada? Tuhade saare teachers di shikaayat ajj hi CM saab nu, education minister nu… ajj hi likh ke… sabdi A to Z…”

Kaur added, “He said we all will be transferred to Tarn Taran. But can he tell us what was our fault? We spent money from our own pockets today to make all arrangements, get tent and plaque installed etc. Does he even know that despite being an SoE school, we haven’t got any funds yet for proper toilets. Despite being an SoE we are still conducting common classes for SoE and non-SoE students because there is shortage of teachers. We teachers are paying from our pockets for free bus service started by the government because it has been three months that we haven’t got funds. Did he listen to all this? Even then we keep our motivation levels high and keep working for the school,” said Kaur.

She added that they have no idea when the work to upgrade infrastructure in the school will start. “We need lecturers for English, Punjabi, Physics, biology, chemistry etc if we have to conduct separate classes for SoE and non-SoE students as per instructions. But since we do not have enough teachers, we are holding common classes. The boundary wall has been made but the school still lacks proper toilets. We got some funds which we used to get urinals made but they still have tin roofs and we need more washrooms for girls. We have more than 650 students but infrastructure is not enough,” she said.

The principal added that even for master cadre (who teach class 6 to 10), posts were lying vacant. “The posts for master cadre teachers including Punjabi, maths, social studies are also vacant. Even posts of sweeper and gardener are vacant. The government has given grant of Rs 3000 per month to appoint sweeper but no one works full time in such meager amount,” she added.

She added that the school has a pending payment of Rs 1.45 lakh for the 40 students who avail free bus service but since the funds haven’t come, teachers are paying for it. “Our physics teacher has paid Rs 40,000 and now I will take a loan of Rs 1 lakh to clear the payment till funds come. And despite all this, we were told today that we don’t work and we don’t know how to manage a school,” Kaur said.

When contacted, Jouramajra said that he had only objected to the “presence of outsiders in a school programme.” “I don’t remember saying such things to the teachers. My only objection was to the presence of outsiders on the campus,” he said.