‘Step to finish middle schools’: Punjab teachers unions lambasts at govt move to shift teachers

“According to this letter, ignoring the number of classes, only two teachers will be left in schools with a student population of 1 to 30, three teachers will be left in schools with a student population of up to 60 and only 4 teachers will be left in schools with a student population of up to 90 and the rest will be sent to other schools under the name of temporary arrangements,” the DTF said.

DTF state president Vikramdev Singh demanded its withdrawal, terming this decision as another step towards closing down government schools. They said that already in the year 2021, Physical Education (PTI), Art and Craft and other teachers have been removed from middle schools and now this decision will create a huge shortage of subject-specific teachers for the students studying in these schools, which will have a detrimental effect on the education of the students and will be a blatant violation of the Right to Education Act.

“Behind the decrease in number of students is also the indirect implementation of National Education Policy 2020 by providing more facilities and full-time teachers to School of Eminence (SoE) and PM SHRI schools and neglecting schools in rural and backward areas and depriving them of teachers,” the association said.

The DTF’s other faction led by Digvijay Pal Sharma also slammed the government decision, saying that the Aam Aadmi Party, which came to power with the slogan of transforming education, has taken up the task of abolishing education itself with the false slogan of education revolution.

“This government has issued a Tughlaqi order to teachers to teach all subjects in middle schools just like primary schools. It has been ordered to have only 2 teachers in middle schools with a strength of 30, 3 teachers up to 60 and 4 teachers up to 90 and it has been ordered to make temporary arrangements for teachers exceeding this number,” the DTF led by Sharma said.

The organisation’s senior vice-president Sarwan Singh Aujla asked how will a Punjabi teacher teach subjects like Mathematics, Science, English, Physical Education, Social Education or Hindi.

The leaders said that the education department, which had earlier decided to have teachers of only four subjects in middle schools, has now decided to have just two subject teachers instead of four.

The DTF demanded that the government withdraw the order and appoint a teacher of each subject in all middle schools. The association said that a large number of unemployed teachers in the state are continuously struggling for their jobs and so the government should immediately recruit new teachers.