Teacher dismissed after being absent for 16 months

It takes an unexplained absence of 16 months to get dismissed from duty. Unbelievable? But so is the case of Jaspal Kaur, a Social Science teacher at the Government Senior Secondary School in Sanghowal of Ludhiana district.

It takes an unexplained absence of 16 months to get dismissed from duty. Unbelievable? But so is the case of Jaspal Kaur, a Social Science teacher at the Government Senior Secondary School in Sanghowal of Ludhiana district.

Jaspal's services were terminated on Thursday by the director general of school education (DGSE), Punjab, Pradeep Aggarwal for being absent since November 19, 2013.

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The case was reported by the circle education officer of Jalandhar to the DGSE's office that the teacher was absent without informing the school principal.

After that, the DGSE's office issued a public notice and gave the teacher 21 days to reply but Jaspal didn't turn up following which her the department dismissed her with immediate effect.

A release by the DGSE office stated that due to unauthorised absence of several teachers the students were suffering as their studies were being affected.

Surprisingly, this is not the first case when the DGSE has taken such a long time to look into matters of unexplained absence.

Mathematics teacher Prem Pal Kaur of Government High School, Ramgarh Bhullar, was dismissed for being absent from the school since January 1, 1997 on February 6 this year. That is more than 18 years. How is that for long vacation