LUDHIANA, Dec 17 — In a meeting with the District Education Officer (primary), 19 Block Primary Officers (BPOs) discussed the problems they were facing due to the duties assigned to teachers in their schools during the census which were scheduled to be held in February.
The BPOs told the officials of the Education Department that the patwaris of their blocks did not consult them while making list of teachers to be sent for conducting the census. They said while in some of the schools, all teachers were drawn for the purpose, in other schools no teacher was assigned any such duty. They complained that while every year studies were in full swing in February, some of the schools would have to be closed during the month, thus, causing a loss to the students.
Even some of the officers in the education department said that they were not consulted while these lists were being prepared and that they too were not aware of the total number of the teachers put on this work.
The meeting was, however, called by the DEO to give instructions to the BPOs regarding the Punjab School Education Board examination of Class V which begin from March 7. The BPOs were told that there would be no charges for the examination form, which would be published by the department soon. They were also told that they must collect and deposit the forms by January 21.
Regarding the examination fee, they were told that Rs 50 would have to be charged from the students belonging to general category and Rs 35 from students belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The fee also has to be deposited by January 21.
The BPOs were also told that the minimum age of the students appearing for the examination should be 9 years on March 3, 2001. For this, the students will have to produce their birth certificates. In case, they do not possess any birth certificate, they would have to bring an affidavit duly signed by an Executive Magistrate.
The BPOs were also intimated that the students would have to score a minimum of 33 per cent of marks for getting promotion and that only 1 per cent of the total marks could be awarded as grace marks.
They were also given the date-sheet according to which examination for maths could be held on March 7, first language (Punjabi or Hindi or Urdu) on March 9, Social Studies on March 10, Science on March 12 and second language (Punjabi or Hindi or Urdu) on March 13. The BPOs were told that if a paper falls on any gazetted holiday, it would be postponed and held later on.
