The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday sought a response from the secretary, department of school education, Punjab, on a suo motu plea over reported poor infrastructure in state schools.
The matter was sent for suo motu proceedings by the bench of justice NS Shekhawat in September, when it came across two petitions, one challenging the decision of local authorities not to relieve a teacher from a middle school, despite his transfer order. Later, it had come to fore that said petitioner was the only teacher in an Amritsar school. The second petition was from a woman primary teacher, who was in court regarding a dispute over her deputation to a school in Ludhiana that had just one teacher.
“It appears that the education of young children is not a priority of the state and the schools completely lack the basic infrastructure, class rooms, toilets and no qualified teachers/head teacher have been provided,” the court had observed while referring both the matters to the chief justice for registration of these matters as public interest litigations.
Now court has sought a response from the education department on the lines of issues framed by the single judge bench by December 15. The details sought included a list of middle schools, where fewer than five rooms are there. Other details sought from the government were of schools, where no regular head master had been posted, where fewer than five teachers were posted, and where there were no separate toilets for boys, girls, and staff. It was also ordered that details be supplied of the schools where there were less than 50 students and whether any steps were taken to get more students enrolled in such schools. Similar details were sought in respect of primary schools.
{{/usCountry}}Now court has sought a response from the education department on the lines of issues framed by the single judge bench by December 15. The details sought included a list of middle schools, where fewer than five rooms are there. Other details sought from the government were of schools, where no regular head master had been posted, where fewer than five teachers were posted, and where there were no separate toilets for boys, girls, and staff. It was also ordered that details be supplied of the schools where there were less than 50 students and whether any steps were taken to get more students enrolled in such schools. Similar details were sought in respect of primary schools.
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