Schools, staff and parents oppose move to merge govt schools

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 22

With the teaching community, the Internet and parents of affected children erupting with anger over the closure of 800 schools in the state – of which 54 are in the district – a majority are of the opinion that this is an attack both on the right to free education of children and an attempt to do away with teachers in a department which is currently in dire need of them.

A majority of the students in these schools are set to lose their education altogether since, being the wards of migrant labourers, many of the students are themselves pursuing labour. The parents can’t afford to send their children to institutions at a distance of a kilometre or more, from where they were currently studying.

While a huge meeting was also held at the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar hall to protest against the move today, some schools also protested at Phillaur and at local BPEOs offices yesterday and more protests shall also be held by teachers at the BPEO offices tomorrow. Moreover, the Education Provider Union shall also hand over a memorandum to the DC on the issue.

A look at the schools in the Phillaur block revealed that while these institutions were, until recently, grappling with the shortage of teachers, just as their attendance and student strength started picking up after the recruitment of staff there, the government announced the closure, reducing to a naught the hard work of the staff (two of these being single teacher schools) working there.

Among the 54 schools are included Government Primary School, Bhaini; Government Primary School Pal Kadim and Government Primary School Bansiyan Dhak. The story of all schools is similar.

While government primary schools at Bhaini and Pal Kadim presently have 17 students each, the Bansiyan Dhak school has 14 students. However, staff and parents say the student strength tells only half the story.

A village member at Bansiyan Dhak, said, “There was never a teacher at the school until recently. A teacher came in recently and the student strength started picking up. The teacher worked hard to up the strength. While a majority of the students at the school are children of migrant labourers, in most of the homes, both the parents go for labour in the morning and the teacher after much hard work, started getting the students to school. However, with this abrupt decision of the government, these students will be robbed of education. The teacher from the other school which is more than a kilometre away, won’t come to get them from their homes.”

Another village resident at Pal Kadim school, said, “This is clearly a move by the government to systematically shunt out the poorest of the poor students from the government education loop. A majority of these students did not have any teachers until recently. Twentyfive per cent of the students in these schools shall be affected by the move since they might not go to schools again. Many of our students here were being brought to school by teachers who visited their homes and coaxed them into visiting the schools. The other schools will never work that hard to ensure education for them.”

DEO (elementary) Rampal said, “Only schools with less than 20 students are being merged and the government has kept the option open that if any of these schools get more than 20 students at any time, these shall be reopened. I think it is a great move by the government and in the long run, shall profit students.”