Haryana govt plans big rejig to improve student-teacher ratio
Under the plan, teachers will be pulled out from different govt schools where their numbers are more than the workload and depute them in schools functioning without a teacher
CHANDIGARH: The Haryana education department has rolled out a plan to pullout teachers of different subjects from government schools where their numbers are more than the workload and depute them on deputation in schools functioning without a teacher.
This move by the education department is aimed at improving the functioning of government schools grappling with the problem of more teachers in comparison to students in certain subjects or vice versa.
Earlier, the education department had taken measures to correct the mismatch in studentteacher ratio by merging the identified high, middle and primary schools to the nearby school in what was called a rationalisation exercise.
The move coincides with the Haryana government on Wednesday appointing 2,075 postgraduate teachers (PGTS) and trained graduate teachers (TGTS) on contract who will be posted in schools where shortage of teachers was noticed during the rationalisation exercise of the schools.
According to a letter issued by additional chief secretary (Acsschool education) Mahavir Singh on November 23, the posting of the teachers will be considered a “temporary deputation” and it will be effective only for the current academic session. The deputation will “automatically stand cancelled” at the end of the academic session or till the vacancy is filled.
The fresh policy/guidelines for “temporary adjustment of teachers” have been prepared after it was noticed that in some schools the number of teachers of a particular subject is more than the workload.
On the other hand, in some other schools either there is no teacher or less teachers are working as compared to the workload.
“Hence, the government has decided to delegate the powers of temporary adjustment of teachers to district education officers (DEO), district elementary education officers (DEEO) as the case may be,” the ACS (school education) has said in his letter dispatched to all DEOS, DEEOS, principals and head of all the government schools. The policy aims at providing minimum required teachers in the schools and it will be effective after the general transfer drive is over.
A panel of DEO, DEEO and BEOS will assess the requirement of teachers to be deputed within the district in consultation with school heads. The committee will identify schools with a large number of vacancies and schools from where teachers can be spared for deputation in schools with high vacancies.
The government has directed that action plan will be prepared by DEO and DEEO by adopting a criterion. Initially, workload will be distributed amongst underutilised TGTS PGTS within the school. If this does not solve the problem, the issue will be tackled by merging the students of same class being run in different campuses of co-located schools and deputing underutilised teachers in other campus of co-located school.
The officials said the “co-located schools” are either in same premises or within the walking distance in a particular village or ward (in case of urban area). If the issue still remains unresolved, teachers from other schools of same cluster will be deputed to fill the minimum requirement.
As per the guidelines, the inter-block deputation will be started as a last option while ensuring minimum displacement. “All such temporary deputations will be need based and within the district only...and no individual request for deputation from any teacher will be entertained, while no teacher will be deputed for non-teaching jobs,” says the letter.
In August, the government had kicked off an exercise to rationalise 105 government middle and high schools when the identified high, middle and primary schools were merged into the nearby school available within 3 km.
During this rationalisation exercise, the government had announced that surplus staff will be transferred during transfer drive by following the approved surplus criteria.