Left private schools during Covid, students now move back

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, May 9

A majority of parents who shifted their wards to government schools during Covid last year are now re-admitting them to their previous or new private institutions.

Reason: Dearth of teachers. “There are only two teachers for more than 200 students. I see the notebooks daily, no work is being done. That’s why I decided to move my son back to a private school,” said Raushan Lal, father of seven-year-old Harjot.

Situation grim

Students are moving back to private schools. The situation is grim due to the acute shortage of teachers. Some of the schools may face closure soon. We will take up the matter with the higher-ups. Kulwinder Singh, president, democratic teachers’ front

Enrolment drive on

We are trying to increase the enrolment in government schools as the drive is still going on. We will ask the schools and take a report on the same, but right now there is no such info. Gurbhajan Singh Lasani, Jalandhar DEO

Like Raushan, many parents had enrolled their children in a government school in Jalandhar amid the pandemic last year. And now, most of them are moving their wards back to private schools.

Talking to The Tribune, a cross-section of teachers said education in government schools would not meet the parents’ expectations till there were sufficient teachers.

The Education Department had boasted about the increase in admissions in government schools when students from private institutions migrated during Covid. However, the scarcity of teachers is being pointed out as the major reason for the reverse migration now.

A teacher of a primary government school in the Lohian block said eight students left this year because of the lack of faculty. Similarly, teachers from government primary schools in Nurmehal, Nakodar, and Phillaur also corroborated the fact. They said parents not only want infrastructure, but also qualified teachers for their children.

Notably, of 58 schools in Nurmehal, more than 40 have just a single teacher. In the Lohian block too, 37 of 52 schools have a single teacher, while seven have none. In the Nakodar block, 21 of 58 schools have a single teacher each.

According to the official data, as many as 86,914 students got themselves enrolled in Jalandhar government primary schools till last week, which were 89,263 last year. In Nawanshahr, there were 31,553 students last year while the number is 30,123 this time.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said the situation had arisen due to insufficient recruitments done by the previous governments. “Our priority is to recruit the teachers and the process will start soon. This will resolve the problem,” he added.