Ludhiana: Education dept seeks info of teachers on deputation

A principal of a government school in Ludhiana, requesting anonymity, said, “In each school, there are teachers serving on deputation in different roles; they remain absent from school for years and no teacher has been provided by the department as their replacement”

To ascertain the number of government teachers serving on deputation in different departments, the Punjab education department has initiated a process to collect the information from such teachers across the state.

A teacher at a government school in Ludhiana said, “Our school has only five science teachers, out of which one has been serving on deputation as a block mentor, but no teacher has been recruited by the department as a replacement due to which the onus to cover the syllabus falls on rest of the teachers.” (HT FILE PHOTO)

In his letter to principals, headmasters and in-charges, deputy district education officer (secondary education) Charanjit Singh has asked them to provide detailed information regarding such teachers. The letter states that the information will be sent to the office of the Punjab minister for school education Harjot Singh Bains.

Teachers have been asked to provide detailed information regarding the nature of the duties and the date on which they started working outside school. Teachers have also been asked to furnish information regarding the official on whose order they had been deputed.

Additional burden on other teachers

As per the sources, there are over 3,500 teachers across the state who are serving on deputation in different roles. As teachers who are on temporary deputation remain absent from schools, it negatively affects the working of government schools and also puts a burden on other teachers.

There are around 2,500 teachers who were appointed as block mentors(BM) in each block for each subject, including English, maths, science, Punjabi, social science and Hindi. The BMs are headed by district mentors, who are subject experts. Also, there are many teachers who work as legal advisors, coordinators, and serve in election cells, but no substitute teachers have been provided to schools.

A principal of a government school, requesting anonymity, said, “In each school, there are teachers who have been deputed to work outside the school in different roles; they remain absent from school for years and no teacher has been provided by the department as their replacement.”

He further said, “If the department wants staff for other positions, those should be filled through separate recruitment.”

A teacher at a government school said, “Our school has only five science teachers, out of which one has been deputed as a block mentor, but no teacher has been recruited by the department as a replacement due to which the onus to cover the syllabus falls on rest of the teachers.”