Friday 15 July 2011

Teachers refuse to carry out BPL survey

Teachers of government-run high schools have strongly opposed their inclusion in theBPL survey work because this would affect studies in schools. There is already an acute shortage of teachers in high schools and involvement of teachers in the survey would cripple education further, the teachers said. 

The Orissa Secondary School Teachers Association(OSSTA) on Thursday threatened to stage an agitation against the state government's decision. "We came to know that the state is going to engage high school teachers in the BPL survey from media reports. We strongly oppose the move and will appeal to authorities to spare teachers of the survey. If necessary, we will also stage a stir," president ofOSSTA Indu Madhav Mohanty said. 

The state government is going to start a survey to count BPL families from September 15. According to the the guideline of the Right to Education Act, the state government cannot engage teachers of primary schools in the survey work, hence it has plans to include teachers of high schools. 

"Orissa is facing a shortfall of around 42,000 teachers at the high school level and 2,100 posts of headmasters are vacant in our state. The schools are already functioning with handful of teachers and if the limited teachers are diverted for 45 days during the BPL survey, how will they complete the syllabus on time," member of OSSTA Kishore Panda said. 

The teachers said the government should keep teachers out of this project. "This year also the state government failed to provide books to the students in time, so teaching was affected at the beginning of the session. And now the state government plans to involve teachers in BPL survey work for 45 days. It will be impossible to complete the syllabus. And, teachers will be blamed if students perform poorly," a teacher Gangadhar Rout said. 

No comments:

Post a Comment