Schools Without Teachers

Schools without teachers

Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.

Here in India in the state of Punjab the state government is announcing time and again that they shall be filling up twenty thousand posts of teachers within the next few months and the people have been listening such pronouncements for the last four to five years. The state is not telling the people through whom the schools are being run when so many posts of teachers are lying vacant.. It is on record that some teachers remain on leave, some teachers could get stations of their choice and therefore, they are posted not in the schools but in the schools of their choice and similarly some teachers remain on furlough conniving with other colleagues. That had been the reason, here in the state, the people in the private sector have taken up this state job and so many new private schools have been set up and are running well. If we conduct a survey, we shall find that only the poor and the children from the side of scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes are available in Government run schools and all others have shifted their children to privately run schools.

If we have a look on our constitution, we find that the state had taken up the responsibility for educating the people of India. But on the other side the state is not able to run the schools which had been in existence since long and most of the state schools are virtually closed down. The state of Punjab represents all the states in India and the conditions of schools in other states cannot be better. The state must come forward and write off this duty from the constitution. The state must give work of education to the private sector and if need be, the state can help the children from the poor families with grant of stipend or help to the parents. Our experience of shows us that the state is not in a position to keep the education subject with them. The state has already started leaving some of the organizations and it is good because what the state cannot do, must be written off from the state list.

We have noted that with all the efforts, the state could not write off illiteracy from this country. Had we been on the right path from the beginning, we could have written off illiteracy from this country during the last six decades. We had been on the wrong path and that had been the reason, we could not write off illiteracy from this country and with this brigade we would never be able to stand in the line of advanced countries. We should immediately realize this position and must work on the right path. We had been in the wrong and we could not root out illiteracy from this country in spite of high pronouncements and assurances given time and again. The state must give this subject to private sector and at the same time the state must establish educational complexes and must see that all the teachers are having prescribed educational qualifications, they are within age limits, they are in good health and they are having a right past. If need be the state must ensure that the teachers are paid as per norms fixed by the state. In these educational complexes the state must ensure that there are play grounds, stadiums, swimming pools, canteens, seating arrangement, dispensary, hostel, gardens, libraries, workshops, community halls etc. etc. which are the minimum needs for providing proper education to the children of this country. Proper education, proper training and proper adjustment at work should be the main targets before the state and if a state fails, then they would not be allowed to pronounce that they too shall take the country to the list of advanced counries.

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