Rationalisation must for govt schools: DGSE .[/u][/color]..Teachers lay siege to Jalandhar bypass ..Teachers busy punching in data, Studies take backseat .

Rationalisation must for govt schools: DGSE ...Teachers lay siege to Jalandhar bypass ..Teachers busy punching in data, Studies take backseat .... Were required to finish the work of furnishing details by August

Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service
Contractual teachers working in government schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA/RMSA) today staged a protest at the grain market and blocked the Jalandher bypass.
They raised slogans against the government for not regularising them. The police had to resort to lathicharge to bring the situation under control.
They lamented that the government had failed to deliver on its promises.

They said they had sought transfer to their hometowns through rationalisation, but the officials had turned down their plea.

Didar Singh Mudki, president of the SSA/RMSA Teachers' Union, said, "The government had assured them of doing the needful. It had promised to issue a notification to regularise them, but had failed to do so."

"We will intensify the agitation, if our demands are not met. We will meet the Chief Minister and if he does not do anything to solve our problem, we will observe a black Independence Day on August 15," added Mudki.

The Administration tried to pacify the teachers, but all efforts proved futile.

ADCP Harmohan Singh urged the union leaders not to block the road, but the latter did not listen to him.

When the teachers had starting marching towards the road at 2 pm, the Administration had asked for 10 minutes' time so that it could talk to the higher authorities, but the teachers did not relent. Following the blockade, SDM KS Mahi assured the protesters that he would help them meet the Chief Minister.






Teachers busy punching in data, Studies take backseat 
 Were required to finish the work of furnishing details by August 5
Megha Mann
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 5
Education in the government high schools and senior secondary schools has taken a backseat as the teaching staff is busy with punching data online on the Punjab government school education portal.

The teachers have been directed to fill in answers for 126 questions for every student till August 5 or else they would not be given their monthly salaries.

“During the monthly meeting conducted at the Teachers’ Home, we were directed to expedite the data filling procedure and ensure that the work is completed by August 5. We were not given any reason for fixing August 5 as the deadline,” said one of the teachers from Nathana block.

Questions about students require filling in of minute details such as the blood group of the child, report of medical examination conducted, his/her unique identification number (UID) or the Aadhar card number, marks scored in various time periods in different subjects, etc.

“Surprisingly, none of the questions has the option of data not being available. Most of the students are unaware of their blood group and we are uploading the information without having any knowledge of the same,” added another teacher from a government girls’ school in Goniana.

Poor internet server and frequent and long power cuts are adding to the woes of the teachers most of whom feel they will not be able to meet the August 5 deadline.

As per rule, the data has to be filled online. In remote villages, where internet penetration is lower, the situation has grown from bad to worse.

“We are forcing teachers to take the work home or do the same from some cyber café. Had the department made these forms available offline, it would have been much easier for us to complete the work,” said a teacher from government senior secondary school at Parasram Nagar where a computer lab has been dedicated to the task of punching data and students are not allowed to enter. Even at the government school for girls located on the Mall Road, a computer lab has been dedicated for the task.

Meanwhile, district education officer (secondary), Hardeep Singh, said he was aware of the problems teachers were facing.

“We will request the Director General of School Education (DGSE) to give us some more time,” he said.

Fact file
Teachers demanded that the data filling procedure should be made offline so that it is easier to speed up the work. As all government schools in state use the website between 8 am to 2 pm, the site gets overburdened and sluggish. “It takes a minimum of 12 to 13 minutes to fill details of one child and with a slow server, it takes more than 30 minutes to fill the same form,” said a teacher from Nathana block. Schools like government school at Bhucho Kalan that have WiFi-enabled computers are scoring over the others when it comes to completing the task at the earliest.

Fact file
Teachers need to fill in answers to 126 questions for every single student. This includes details like the blood group of the child, his/her Aadhar card number, among other details.

Dispose of unutilised items in schools: DGSE
Nikhila Pant Dhawan
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 5
The head of all the government schools have been directed to dispose of the furniture and other items that have been lying unutilised in the schools for long.

In a letter addressed to the District Education Officers (DEO), elementary and secondary, the Director General of School Education (DGSE) directed them to inform the school heads to dispose of the broken pieces of furniture and other items that are not being used in their respective schools.

The DGSE said it had been noticed that unutilised items have been lying strewn around, taking up space on the school premises. It also said enough space should be made available for the students and not be wasted on storing broken pieces of chairs desks and utensils.

The school heads have been asked by the DGSE to begin the process of selling off such items as soon as possible and update the district education officers on the progress.

The heads have also been directed to deposit the funds, raised from selling the items, in the account of the school management committee and then use it for undertaking development work in the school.

Fact file
DEOs asked to dispose of furniture and other items that are lying unutilised and use the funds for development work in the schools.

Overgrown grass worries school authorities 
Education Department fails to depute any gardener
Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 5
Overgrown grass is again a problem at Shaheed Sukhdev Senior Secondary School in Bharat Nagar here as the Education Department has still not deputed any gardener in the school.

The school authorities have already been facing a trial in the Punjab State Human Rights Commission in this regard.

Last year, a Human Rights activist had complained to the Punjab State Human Right Commission that lush-green bushes on the school premises can cause any accident as the weeds had become a safe haven for snakes and other harmful insects.

The school authorities told the Human Rights Commission that they had not any gardener to cut the grass and weeds.

The Commission instructed the Education Department to provide gardeners to the school. But after several months of the instructions, the department did not provide any gardener to the school.

Now, with the arrival of the monsoon, weeds have started growing on the school campus. The school authorities seem worried that if the department would not provide them any gardener, they would have to cut the weeds on their own expenses.

Kamaljit Kaur, principal of the school, said: “After the first rainfall of the monsoon, weeds have started growing on the school campus. We have posts of gardeners, but the government did not fill them for several years. We have written several times to depute a gardener in the school, but to no avail”.

“Now, we will have to hire gardeners on our own expenses to cut the grass,” she added.

Meanwhile, Human Rights activist Varinder Singh said: “It sounds bad that the department does not care about the lives of students. If weeds and bushes grow again on the school premises, there could be a threat to the lives of students from snakes and other insects. So, the government should provide at least one gardener to the school”.

Rationalisation must for govt schools: DGSE 
Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 5
Rationalisation is required for government schools. In some villages, there are more government schools than the required. These schools should be merged with each other to provide all the required facilities to the schools. Kahan Singh Pannu, Director-General School Education (DGSE), said this during an open session with school principals and headmasters after inspecting the government schools of the district.

“Earlier, we focused on the number of schools, but now every village has a school. Now, we should focus on strengthening these schools,” said the DGSE.

Kahan Singh Pannu discussed various issued related to schools, teachers and uplifting education standards.

Talking about the problems in the schools due to the shortage of funds, the DGSE said: “Teachers can address most of the problems at the school level if they start their efforts with dedication. Now, teachers are drawing good salaries. They can contribute Rs 500 every month and raise a welfare fund for the students. They can motivate NGOs and NRIs to contribute to the funds for the schools”.

The DGSE shared some Urdu couplets with the teachers to motivate them to work for the uplifting the school education.

He appreciated the schools where teachers were taking care of libraries, environment and cultural activities.