No textbooks, missing benches & unsafe rooms
FARIDKOT: Incomplete set of textbooks, no benches to sit and unsafe classrooms mark the state of school education in the district. This, even as chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, no less, expressed his disappointment at the 57% result in Class-10 at the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB). After his much-publicised comment, government officials had vowed to improve the education standards and take action, if warranted against teachers. Three months later, it is clear that before any action is taken against anyone, the government needs to ensure the basics for education are made available.
Here in the region at least, the PSEB is yet to release books of 17 subjects to students of Classes 1-8. Anecdotal evidence suggests the same is true, across the state as well. “Delay in distributing text books is causing academic loss,” a senior official said.
10 BENCHES FOR
200 STUDENTS
An HT team visited a primary school in Jeevan Nagar to find that the school had only 10 benches for 200 students. As a result, students were making do with gunny bads spread on the floor to sit and listen to lectures. This leads to complaints of burns and rashes from students.
“We feel helpless at times to help students from avoiding the burning heat,” principal Nirmal Jeet Kaur said.
UNSAFE CLASSROOMS What is worse than no facilities is the complete turning of blind eye of the authorities to the use of classrooms that the state engineering department has declared unsafe.
District education officer Dharamveer Singh said, “I have instructed the authorities of the schools not to use classrooms which require renovation. At the Jeevan Nagar primary school, three classrooms are in use for the students. We plan to merge the school into a government secondary school.”
Headmistress of a government secondary school told HT that many schools in the district were struggling to pay electricity bills. “Our power connection was disconnected as we failed to pay bills. The school took a loan and teachers contributed to ensure power is restored,” she claimed. AMRITSAR: Stressing that Sikhs have played a pivotal role in economic development of various countries, United Kingdom’s first turbaned Sikh parliamentarian, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, said on Wednesday that raising issues faced by Sikhs will be among his top priorities as a member of the House of Commons.
After paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, he spoke on Operation Bluestar, the 1984 army action ordered by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi to flush out militants from the Golden Temple, during a media interaction and said, “Earlier, an inquiry was done (into the UK’s alleged role in the operation). But that was a whitewash. Now we will get an independent inquiry done to find out what the role of the then British government was when Operation Bluestar took place.”
Dhesi also raised the 1984 antiSikh riots that followed Indira’s assassination, and said, “The pain is still there in the community. People are awaiting justice, and only justice will help them move on.”
About Sikhs abroad, he said, “There are countries for which thousands of Sikhs have sacrificed their lives and have also contributed immensely to their development; but it is unfortunate that in those very countries they are asked to remove their turbans in the name of security. The turban is the pride of every Sikh.” He talked about France, “where Sikh students are banned from wearing turban in school and others are asked to remove their turbans for official pictures”.
“Many Sikhs have been shot dead due to this mistaken identity glitch. This needs to stop. I will raise this. I know the community is looking up to me. I am proud to be a member of the UK parliament as it is a diverse House, and even these issues will be heard and resolved,” said the member Parliament from Slough segment.
Earlier, SGPC executive members, in the absence of president Kirpal Singh Badungar, collectively honoured the MP and his father, Jaspal Singh Dhesi. SGPC general secretary Amardeep Singh Chawla told the MP that everyone is proud of his “record-breaking win”.
Canadian politician Prabhdeep Gill, a member of the legislative assembly of Alberta in Canada also visited the Golden Temple to pay his respects on Wednesday.