‘Abhiyan’ without ‘Shiksha’ in Punjab schools
Perneet Singh
Tribune News Service

Moga, September 13
It seems that the Punjab Government needs to be told that appointing teachers and not spending crores on education drives holds the key to educating the masses.

A visit by The Tribune to about a dozen village schools located on the banks of the Sutlej here revealed that the education system in the state has virtually collapsed.

These schools don’t have enough teachers and infrastructure and the only thing they have is Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan inscribed on the walls of dilapidated buildings. Almost all schools have no peons and safai karamcharis and students come half hour early to clean up the campus.

Government Primary School at Jindra village is crying for attention. It has only one teacher for 81 students of five classes.

When this correspondent visited the school today, the only teacher was on leave and an intermediate girl who had been appointed as temporary teacher was managing the students. Some of the bright students were teaching their classmates.

The school doesn’t have a boundary wall, toilet and proper drinking water arrangements.

The students were being taught in the open as there is no power connection in the schools. Classrooms are in a shambles and one of the rooms was serving as a store-cum-kitchen.

Government Primary School at Chak Jindra village has now turned into a gurdwara. A village resident, Hari Singh, said the school had a single teacher and it functioned for five-six years. It closed down owing to poor quality of education and lack of facilities. The villagers then decided to make it a gurdwara.

Government High School, Chak Kania Kalan, has 222 students and only five teachers. There is no teacher for maths, science and English. “We were demanding its upgradation to plus 2 but the government is not appointing any teachers,” said villagers.

Three teachers have been appointed on a temporary basis and are paid salaries by collecting Rs 30 per month from the students. The primary section of the school has 131 students in five classes and one teacher who is about to retire in December.

In this section, too, two temporary teachers have been appointed and the students, who come from poor financial background, contribute Rs 10 each towards their salaries.

Sources said the school had applied for power connection about a year ago, but nothing had been done till now.

The government has built a room worth Rs 1.2 lakh in the school under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and like other rooms, it is of no use due to lack of power. The classrooms here are serving as storerooms.

The primary section has taken a power connection from the high school to run a motor so as to provide water to the students.

All rooms of the high school building were built with the support of the people. As the school has no peon, the head-master himself locks the classrooms and the main gate.

The school had cent percent result till 2000 and its students had participated in state-level volleyball tournaments. Now, lack of amenities is taking a toll on education.

A single building houses government primary schools of Kawan and Said Muhammad Shahwala village. When this correspondent visited the schools, none of the three teachers were present.

The sarpanch of Kawan village, Mangal Singh, was supervising the flooring work of classrooms. He said the teachers had gone out but couldn’t give much details.

A temporary teacher of Kawan school was looking after the students of both schools. This teacher is paid Rs 400 per month, which is again collected from the students.

Till about a fortnight ago the school didn’t have any drinking water arrangement. The sarpanch said they had recently installed a handpump. The school doesn’t even have a boundary wall.

At Chak Tarewala village, the school only had one teacher for about 60 students. The situation is similar in Roshanwal and Baduwal villages.

Government Primary School at Daburji doesn’t have a post of permanent teacher and a teacher from Government Primary School, Thuthgarh, has been appointed on deputation.

The District Education Officer, Mr Ashok Sachdeva, said they were facing staff shortage and temporary arrangements had been made to tackle the same. He said the department had ensured that there was at least one teacher in a primary school.

No new appointments were being made and the teachers were retiring every month. He said the panchayats could take up the matter of power connections with their respective subdivision offices.