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A year on, 19 Ludhiana government schools sans infrastructure, teachers
The official notification to upgrade as many as 229 schools in Ludhiana was issued in December 2021 by the former Congress government
: Despite being upgraded in 2021, as many as 19 government schools in the district have not yet received required infrastructure and additional staff to enrol students, keeping the school administrations in limbo on whether to register students for the new academic session or not.
These schools include eight high schools, eight middle schools, and three primary schools.
The official notification to upgrade as many as 229 schools in the district was issued in December 2021 by the former Congress government.
The schools were upgraded due to increased student strength and provide higher education facilities to students of nearby areas.
The government high schools, which have been upgraded as senior secondary on the official portal of the education department, have not yet received principals and additional staff and principals.
Baldev Singh, district education officer, said that the schools were upgraded to cater to the needs of their respective localities and will benefit the students if required infrastructure and staff is provided.
He said that the decision regarding providing infrastructure and appointing staff in these schools will be taken by the state department as the district education department has not received any update in this regard.
Teachers at GSSS Haibowal Kalan, which has 758 students from class 6 to 10 does not have a full-time in charge, nor any appointments for the post of principal and additional staff have been made. They said that the school has enough space to create more classrooms.
A teacher, on the basis of anonymity, said that as other senior secondary schools are at a distance, several residents and local leaders had written to the education department for the upgradation of the school.
She said that after the announcement, schools had even started the process to enrol students in the new classes for session 2022-23, but after verbal orders from the district education department, the admissions were denied. We still do not have any official order on whether to admit students in the new classes or not, she added.
An education department official said that after heads of a few high schools submitted false reports regarding the non-availability of land, re-verification of the infrastructure had begun.
In her official orders, former district education officer Jaswinder Kaur had directed the head of GHS, Sunet to provide his version after discrepancies were found in the availability of space shown in the documents.
Residents of Sunet village had submitted the documents to the education department proving the availability of land.
Baldev Singh, a resident of Sunet village said that there are over 150 students in Class 10 who will benefit if the senior classes start at the schools as all other schools are located on the other side of the national highway.
The eight high schools upgraded to senior secondary schools in the district include Ragveer Singh Freedom Fighter GHS, Amloh Road, Khanna; GHS, Aliwal; GHS Haibowal Kalan; GHS Nagra; GHS Sunet; GHS Barewal Awana, GHS Begowal and GHS Jassowal. Eight middle schools – GMS, Ratanheri; GMS, Madhepur, GMS, Kalal Majra, GMS, Housing Board Colony, GMS, Billanwali Chhapri, GMS, Jassian, GMS, Garhi and GMS, Mohi – were upgraded to high schools, while GPS, Bhikhi Khatra; GPS, Tugal; and GPS, Jodhan, made the cut among primary schools.
An education department official requesting anonymity said that even as new schemes regarding schools such as ‘School of Eminence’ are being launched, the plan to upgrade these schools hangs in balance.
