Showkat Ahmad Wani
Questions are being often raised why a teacher in a government school is a parent in a private school. An image is being portrayed as if only the teachers responsible for the gradual decline in enrolment of Government run institutions. Questions are being asked that on the one hand the government school teachers are campaigning for motivating parents for enrolling their kids in government schools, and are making efforts for identifying out of school children for bringing them back to schools, but on the other hand, government school teachers have their own children enrolled in private schools as a result, the enrolment campaign / drive of Government teachers will never succeed because the teachers should have started charity from their homes and first enrolled their own children in Government schools and thereafter preached others for the same which would have instilled confidence in parents and may have fetched good tangible results.
It is a fact that over the years , the society has lost faith in government education sector and parents prefer a private school where they have to pay hefty amounts as fees and donations. It can also be not denied that free books , free uniforms , free mid day meals, well qualified staff are not able to lure parents towards these Government schools. Enrolment in government schools has been decreasing day by day and these schools have now become last option for children of those parents who do not afford expenses of private schools. Our Government schools have children of lesser God coming from those families which are economically backward. There are a number of reasons that are responsible for poor show of government schools.
Letus start from infrastructure, the private schools are having better infrastructure in terms of well furnished classrooms, seating arrangements, laboratories ,toilets, electricity and drinking water facilities. Contrary to it our Government elementary schools have such infrastructure and buildings which are not able to attract the parents seldom a child. At many places these schools have been housed in rented accommodations where live stock of land lord and our students are not far from each other. Our government schools are lagging far behind in facilities of electricity, drinking water , seating arrangements , toilets etc.
Take the case of teaching staff, in private schools there are sufficient teachers and at least one teacher for one class. A private school teacher has set goals and fixed assignments. He teaches with satisfaction as he has sufficient time to pay individual attention to his/her students .On the other hand in government schools, at primary level for teaching five classes , we have two or three teachers and in middle schools for teaching eight classes we have 5 or 6 teachers for teaching eight classes, each teacher has to teach 12-14 classes in five hours and the justice they would be able to do with their assignments is not difficult to work out. In addition, the Government teacher has to prove his mettle as manager mid day meals, polling officer/ presiding officer in elections, enumerator/supervisor in census, acts as BLO for election commission of India assignments, supervisor for health audit, socio economic censuses, examination duties and the latest one i.e covid-19 management duties. Contrary to this the private school teacher has not to perform any of the above mentioned duties and he/she devotes all time to his/her teaching profession.
Add to it that a good number of posts of Chief Education Officers, Principals of Higher Secondary Schools ,Headmasters High Schools ,Head teachers Middle Schools , ZEO’s of Education Zones, Lecturer posts are vacant through out the length and breadth of the union territory affecting the smooth functioning of the Government schools.
Statistics reveal that all Principals, Headmasters , Zonal Education Officers , Chief Education Officers , Dy. Chief Education Officers, Joint Directors who are presently working and managing key positions of the department are working in Incharge capacities and are not being confirmed from last decade despite creation of many committees, submission of documents ,SAC and cabinet directives. If higher authorities are not able to instill confidence in their officers and workforce , their motivation , confidence will definitely get jeopardized.
If we look at syllabus, despite requests from teachers, stake holders the powers that be could not replace the outdated syllabus of government schools. Kindergarten classes could not be started due to unknown reasons and who so ever is admitted in government schools is directly put into class Ist. Contrary to it classes of nursery, LKG ,UKG play a pivotal role in grooming a child for class Ist.
The lacunae, the shortcomings that have been mentioned above are not in control of a Government teacher. The solutions to these problems come in the domain of higher echelons of power , decision makers who have over the years failed to transform the system with the changing times. The state heads ,the ministers , the officers heading the school education over the decades are responsible for the declining enrolment in government schools and putting blame squarely on a teacher who is lowest in the hierarchy is not good. Although we teachers cannot be totally exonerated and absolved and we as teachers should have to ponder that why a parent does not trust us , why parents do not feel the career of their children safe in our hands. We have many Government schools which are giving stiff competition to private schools in their areas but it needs will power and resolve with confidence. We have to extract much from the given available resources .We can not keep harping on lack of this and lack of that. We will have to redouble our efforts seriously so that stereotype of Government schools in the society changes and a parent feels that career of his/her ward is safe in the hands of a Government school teacher & stigma associated with our government schools ends for good. Let the higher echelons of power take steps to address big issues that are plaguing the system. We will regain our lost pride as teachers. We can call ourselves successful teachers only when a minister , secretary , director , teacher , rich , poor parent admits his/her ward in our Government schools with pride and honour. But blaming and hanging the poor teacher only is not the solution and will not serve the purpose.
(The author is I/C Lecturer Pol.Sc HSS D H Pora Kulgam)
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