Punjab teachers’ performance: Blame RTE, immense work load for poor results, say teachers

Teachers alleged that since 2011 when the Right to Education Act was implemented in Punjab, students were being promoted to classes 10 and 12 without clearing any exam till class 8 which has led to deteriorating standards.

“I teach English to class 10 and I have to start it right from the basics – from vowels to spellings. There is hardly any focus on strengthening basics upto class 8 and then Cheema saab expects us to get marvelous results in class 10 and 12,” said Daljit Singh, from Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF).

“I teach history and political science to class 10. But I also teach English for class 12 because the post of lecturer has been vacant for four years. If they fair poorly in board exams it is not my fault,” said a teacher from Moga.

“Instead of touring villages with the CM, we request Cheema saab to do sangat darshan of government schools too. Is he aware that teachers fill buckets of water when there is no water to drink and carry sacks of flour on scooters for mid-day meals. That is not our job,” said a teacher. However, the list of 32 worst performers released by Cheema showed that 30 of them are from lecturer cadre, who teach class 12.

“This means they had students who cleared class 10 board exams and then came to class 12. So this RTE excuse is not applicable here but certainly non-teaching duties given to government teachers is unacceptable,” said an official from the education department.

Harpreet Singh Dua, fellow and dean Panjab University Chandigarh and an eminent educationist said, “Accountability of teachers is important but there are various other factors which have to be counted before blaming teachers for failure of students. Firstly, RTE has actually deteriorated standard of primary education. Secondly, teachers should not be asked to do non-teaching jobs but that is certainly not an excuse for non- performance.”

“Also, background of students matter a lot when we talk about results because in current scenario majority of parents do not prefer sending kids to government schools. Most of students in government schools are from migrant and laborers’ families who come from extremely poor background. They need special counselling,” he added.