DoE ‘push’ to teachers has yielded results in govt schools

The DoE has been conduction workshops for PGT teachers since four years to ‘motivate’ them to produce good results.

“We ask teachers to pull up their socks because a child’s future rests in their hands. It is not so difficult to get passing marks in a subject,” education director Chandrabhushan Kumar said.

Despite putting non-performing teachers in the ‘red zone’ (for teachers who deliver pass percentage of 75 per cent or below),no teacher has been penalised so far.

But Kumar does not rule out ‘action’. “There are procedures wherein we can take action against a teacher for bad results,” he said.

The latest workshop for teachers in the ‘red zone’ was held on January 24 in Khalsa College. Nearly 400 class XII teachers attended the workshop.

They were addressed by subject experts from the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in the presence of the education director and secretary.

“The DoE has zone-wise data about the attendance and results of teachers,” a senior DoE official said. “And teachers not delivering good results are drawn out for training and motivation programmes.”

Kumar said the interaction between SCERT experts and teachers provides insight into what spoils result in government schools. “SCERT is our primary capacity building organisation. Their experts give teachers guidance on how to teach different topics,and explain where they lag behind.”

The teachers say they welcome the workshops. “The SCERT teachers show us PowerPoint presentations,discuss problems with the low performing teachers,and give tips,” Om Singh,president of the Government School Teachers Association (GSTA),said. “There is no punishment or censure here. And the results have actually improved in the four years that such workshops have been held.”