Teacher-student ratio goes for a toss in Haryana district

Nuh continues to face a severe paucity of teachers despite it being one of the 112 most underdeveloped districts in the country under Aspirational Districts Programme of NITI Aayog

Bleak future: A class in progress at a government school in Nuh, Haryana. SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Ashok Kumar NUH

Last month, Kotla village in the Ferozepur Jhirka sub-division of Haryana’s Nuh district hit the headlines after locals locked the gates of the high school for six days to protest against all its three teachers being transferred.

“The school had three teachers for 207 students from Classes VI-X against 13 sanctioned posts, but even they were moved out. When the villagers came to know about it, they locked the school and sat on a dharna outside it. Three teachers, including two on deputation, have now been sent to this school,” said Pawan Kumar, a teacher with a junior basic training diploma at the village’s primary school.

While the Kotla protests have died down, other schools in Nuh continue to face a severe paucity of teachers despite the district being identified as one of the 112 most underdeveloped districts in the country under the Aspirational Districts Programme of NITI Aayog.

320 pupils, 2 teachers

The primary wing of the Government Senior Secondary School in Ghaghas, Ferozepur Jhirka sub-division, for instance, has 320 students but only two teachers against 10 sanctioned posts. The 129 students in the middle wing, Classes VI-VIII, are without a teacher with the lone trained graduate teacher transferred recently.

Posted at the school’s primary wing for around five years now, Mohan Lal, the head teacher, said the staff strength has never been more than three. “We have merged the classes into two groups to keep things running,” said Mr. Lal. Vijay Singh, the other teacher for the primary wing, also doubles up as a booth-level official and mostly remains preoccupied with government work.

Transferred to the school just weeks ago, school principal Neelam Sangwan conceded that students were suffering due to the shortage of staff. “The school was upgraded to senior secondary level last year with the introduction of Class IX. We have 42 students in Class IX, but a lone postgraduate teacher for English. We manage to teach them Hindi and social studies, but there are no teachers for mathematics and science,” said Ms. Sangwan, who commutes daily from Sohna.

Niggling issues

A teacher at Kotla, not willing to be named, said Nuh is not a preferred posting for teachers because of the difficulty in finding suitable rented accommodation.

“The district authorities can arrange for outstation teachers to stay on the school premises itself or the village panchayat should come forward, like in Sirsa district, to help teachers get good accommodation. Also, the government is yet to pay the promised 10% additional allowance to teachers posted in Nuh,” he said.

Nuh district education officer Ramphal Dhankhar said teachers were being transferred to Nuh from the rest of Haryana to deal with the shortage and soon all sanctioned posts would be filled. He added that the government had plans to appoint retired teachers on a temporary basis to deal with the shortage.

https://epaper.thehindu.com/Home/MShareArticle?OrgId=G07AANLT7.1&imageview=0