Teachers of government schools in the state have complained that they are being deployed for odd jobs, like census check, elections and polio administration, and yet are often not paid any additional amount for doing these works.
This has not only resulted in a growing discontentment among teachers, it has also affected their performances, thus directly impacting the students.
With schools faring poorly, the heads of the schools are now being questioned.
Teachers are unable to dedicate sufficient time to the students, since they are saddled with so much of non-teaching work. The quality of education imparted in most government schools gets majorly affected. Thus students suffer badly and their results are often poor, said Balkishan Yadav, President of Haryana School Lecture Association. Some teachers have admitted that the students often go without lessons for months, when teachers are involved in other duties. Few teachers are involved with some non-teaching work or the other, throughout the year. Their classes are simply not held and students suffer due to this. No wonder, people prefer private schools as they feel the quality of education is much better there, said Krishan Kumar, lecturer at government school in Chakkarpur.
Teachers and principals feel that it is high time that the government identify a separate team of individuals who can handle the non-teaching jobs.
Government should make sincere efforts to improve the quality of education in their schools. Studies should not be affected and teachers should be allowed to focus on their primary duty teaching, and give maximum time to students. Due to the poor quality of education in government schools, the teachers send their own kids to private schools! said Balkishan.
Ashok Thakran, lecturer at Government Boys school, Gurgaon, also agreed that the gap between private and government schools should be bridged.
This will be possible only when the teachers, principals and the government join hands to better schools standards, he said. When asked to comment on the issue, Jyoti Chaudhary, District Education Officer (DEO), said the government will ensure that teachers are paid for the additional work and added that both the school principals and government should ensure that lessons are not affected.
