6 more schools in Mansa, Bathinda locked up for want of teachers
STATE EDUCATION DEPT TRANSFERS 16 TEACHERS FROM BATHINDA, 12 FROM MANSA TO TARN TARAN
A day after Mansa villagers locked eight government schools on Friday, four from Bathinda and two from Mansa joined the shutdown on Saturday. The development took place after the state education department transferred 16 teachers from Bathinda, and 12 from Mansa, to Tarn Taran. The transfers took place, allegedly, as these teachers were among the protesters that Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan/ Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA/ SSA) teachers’ union has been holding in Patiala.
The schools locked up in Bathinda are at Gulabgarh, Gehri Devi Nagar, Chauhan Basti and Kotli Sabo villages.
REALITY CHECK
The HT team travelled to Kulrian in Mansa and found that the only elementary trained teacher, Rajwinder Singh, with hometown Mansa, has been transferred to Nawanshahar district, 250km away for his activism in the ongoing teachers’ agitation in Patiala. Over a 100 children, sitting on mats outside the primary school, were raising anti-government slogans and seeking withdrawal of the forceful transfer of teachers).
“The government talks of upgrading schools, but here the only teacher has been taken away, leaving the school at the mercy of and education provider only,” said Mohinder Singh, whose granddaughter studies in Class 3 in the school.
An education service provider drawing a paltry ₹5,000 per month takes care of two classes in a single room. “We have nothing to say for being a government servant,” she requested anonymity, standing helplessly by the side of the children.
Mansa DEO Rajinder Kaur told HT that she had received transfer orders for 12 teachers from six schools. “They have been charged with disrupting District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) seminars in Mansa,” she added.
The 11 other teachers who were transferred to far-off districts like Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar include one each from Jalwera, Gamewala, Saddasinghwala, Dalowala, Bajewal, Kallo, Tamkot, Ralla Kothe and Bhopal Plot villages, and two from the school in Raiour village.
The state director public instruction (elementary education) Inderjit Singh, however, said, “Transfers have nothing to do with the ongoing protest. These happened after the Tarn Taran DEO raised the issue of acute shortage of teachers especially in primary schools,” the DPI added.
Bathinda DEO (elementary) Gurdarshan Singh said, “People closed the schools. I hope issues of protesting teachers are resolved by Monday and things return to normal.”
₹15,000 A MONTH AFTER 12 YEARS
Primary school teacher Hardeep Singh from Kallo primary school near Mansa, who has been shifted to Nawanshahr village has been teaching since 2006. Hardeep would now be getting a monthly salary of ₹15,000 after 12 years of teaching experience, as per a fresh cabinet decision and notification. “It is for the first time that teachers are facing victimisation (for their participation in the state level agitation) to an extent that they are thrown to 300km away to Amritsar or Tarn Taran in border areas,” he claimed.