In 1,431 schools,only one teacher

In Government Middle School Khaira Fauja Singh in Jalandhar district,Sant Singh,a arts teacher,takes all classes in a single classroom. When he finds its difficult to teach English,he requests the village panchayat to send local educated girls to take the classes.

“I do everything — from teaching to doing the work of a peon. I also perform clerical works of the school and is responsible for mid-day meals,” said Sant Singh. He added: “There are 64 students between Classes VI to VIII and I teach them all. Despite my repeated requests to the district authorities,nothing has been done.”

Similar is the situation at Nawan Pind Jattan Government Middle School and Mundi Kaso Lohian Government High School,where single teachers have been teaching all subjects.

In Mundi,English teacher Mohammad Daud travels around 80 km daily to reach the school. He then teaches all the 108 students of the school. “According to government policy,a teacher must be posted in a school that is not more than 15 to 20 km away from his residence. Also,the teacher-student ratio should not be more than 1:30,” said Mohammad.

In Kang Kalan,while a Hindi teacher looks after all the 100 students,in Raipur Gujran middle school,teachers are called on deputation as it has no permanent teacher. In Kakkar Kalan middle school as well,a single teacher teaches all subjects.

When contacted,District Education Officer (DEO) Neelam Kumari said: “Some schools have surplus teachers but they are not ready to leave as the school is near their residences.”

The state education department has been doing annual rationalization of teachers for many years now but this is a mean to adjust the near and dear ones of government officials according to their choice and not the requirement of the schools,said a senior department official.

While admitting that rationalisation of teachers has not taken place properly in Punjab in the previous years,Education Minister Sinkander Singh Maluka said: ‘This year,I promise that rationalisation will be done properly and no school will left with just one teacher.”

In hoshiarpur 400 teaching seats vacant

According to the information received under RTI Act by social worker Jai Gopal Dhiman,there are 108 senior secondary schools,142 high schools and 164 middle schools in Hoshiarpur district with around 400 posts of teachers lying vacant. These included — 36 teachers for Punjabi,33 history,15 Hindi,47 English,44 each for political science and economics,20 chemistry and 11 for physics. Posts of math and computer scievacantnce teachers are also vacant. Some of the posts have been even lying vacant for the last 20 years even,stated in the RTI report.