3 teachers deputed to Moga school with lone teacher

I have ordered deputation of three teachers of Punjabi, social studies and physical training. They will join the school on Monday GURDARSHAN SINGH BRAR, DEO (secondary) Moga

MOGA: A day after HT reported that a single teacher has been working at Government Middle School at Sirsari village in Dharamkot sub-division for five years now, the education department has deputed three teachers to the school. The new staff will start work from Monday.

The school that functions under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has five sanctioned posts of teachers — including of Hindi and Punjabi.

Till Sunday (August 13), the day HT highlighted the plight of the school, Navpreet Kumar, a teacher on contract, had been taking Classes of nine subjects of 67 students in Grades 6, 7 and 8 alone for five years.

“After the publication of the news, I received a call from my bosses who told me to depute the required staff in the Sirsari School immediately. I have ordered deputation of three teachers of Punjabi, Social Studies and Physical Training. They will join the school on Monday and I hope the step will help alleviate problems to an extent,” Gurdarshan Singh Brar, district education officer (DEO secondary) Moga said.

He added that the teachers — Jasvir Singh for SST and English; Shamar Singh for Punjabi and Hindi and Sheela Devi (Physical Training, Instructor) — will be deputed at the school, till it does not get permanent staff.

Sources in the education department said both the director public instruction and the education secretary Krishan Kumar had called up the district education officer (Moga) and asked for immediate action.

“I am preparing a list of schools that face the problem of staff shortage. This list will be sent to the higher authorities soon,” Brar added.

‘QUALITY WILL IMPROVE’

Navpreet Kumar, the teacher at the school, when told about the deputation of three teachers, was happy and relieved and said he would work even harder now.

“I have always tried to do my best. It was tough managing three classes alone. Now, the quality and efficacy of what we teach will improve.”

Now, as this Government Middle School at Sirsari village in Dharamkot gets to celebrate the 71st Independence Day with a lot more fervour and enhanced faith in the system, a lot more needs to be done.

A challenge that also requires some attention is that over 50% upper-primary schools in the Moga district don’t have principals — only 40 principals are posted against 83 sanctioned.

Against posts of 77 headmasters, only 29 are posted, a vacancy rate of around 60%.

For over a year, the majority of the lecture and cadre posts are also vacant and this has been a major source of worry for the state’s education department.

Even CM Amarinder Singh has expressed his worries over the poor results.