Ludhiana: Classes suffer as staff crunch forces teachers to carry out chores
An in-charge of a centre school in the city said, “Now, we are not just limited to teaching, we are assigned with the duties of non-teaching staff as well; we have to maintain registers, update things online and compile data from the seven schools associated with us”
The unavailability of non-teaching staff at government primary schools of the district, hampers the regular classes taken by the teaching faculty of the schools, especially the centre schools, which collects data from all the schools falling under its block.
There are 112 centre schools in the district and 10 in the city. Each school has been allotted 7-10 schools which send their respective data to the centre unit, whose responsibility is to consolidate and compile the data and forward it to Block Primary Education Office.
An in-charge of a centre school in the city said, “Now, we are not just limited to teaching, we are assigned with the duties of non-teaching staff as well. We have to maintain registers, update things online and compile data from the seven schools associated with us.”
Another teacher of a primary school said, “The burden is more on centre schools. Apart from compiling data, we are also required to pick up books from the block offices which come in instalments and procure pesticides to prevent the damage of wheat. Even if we are provided with one clerk, we would be much relieved and be able to give our 100% in the classes.” The teacher also claimed the additional burden of performing non-teaching duties which hampers the quality of classes conducted by them.
Democratic teachers front district president Ramanjit Singh said the issue faced by teaching staff is genuine and the request for non-teaching staff in the primary schools has been forwarded to the education minister.
District education officer (elementary) Lalita Arora said, “This is a part of their duty as teachers, they just need to be efficient. An efficient educator would not feel the burden and would be able to manage everything smoothly.” The plan to recruit non-teaching staff in the primary schools is under process, she added.
