Punjab class monitors keep teachers on toes

In a first of its kind initiative to make government school teachers more accountable, the Punjab government has designated over 30,000 students as class monitors to keep a daily record of lectures delivered and home work allotted. Jasdeep Singh Malhotra reports.

In a first of its kind initiative to make government school teachers more accountable, the Punjab government has
designated over 30,000 students as class monitors to keep a daily record of lectures delivered and home work allotted. This, in turn, keeps a check on absenteeism among teachers.

HT Image

Krishan Kumar, director general school education, told HT the school education department recently introduced the ‘monitor diary’ concept in five classes — VI to Class X. Monitors file daily details of lessons and home work given to students in each subject by the teacher concerned.

“The initial results are encouraging as students of nearly 6,000 government schools are now empowered to document the classroom performance of their teachers. It will be a deterrent to non-performers,” Kumar said. He added that nearly 1,300,000 students were likely to benefit from this.

Apart from inputs by monitors, Kumar said, school heads had been instructed to make daily comments in the diary and sign the same to ensure daily assessment of teachers.

“The monitor leaves the relevant column empty in case a teacher doesn’t attend class. It would now be difficult for teachers to miss class without getting noticed. Besides, they will have to teach a new lesson almost daily to cover the syllabus,” he said.