Only one teacher for 206 students!

Wednesday, 25/04/2012

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120425/punjab.htm#8

Students sit in the corridor at Government Primary School, Khunde Halal village in Muktsar district.

A school at Khunde Halal village in Chief Minister's home district, Muktsar, has just one teacher for 206 students. As per the Right to Education Act, one teacher is required for 30 students (30:1), but at Government Primary School here, the student-teacher ratio is nearly seven times the prescribed limit.

With such state of affairs, the school does not follow the practice of morning assembly. Sukhwinder Singh is the lone teacher, who is the one-man army at the school as he does the job of a clerk and the principal as well. He also supervises the mid-day meal.

He sometimes teaches all students of classes I to V collectively and sometimes orders them to do self-study. The students keep playing hide-and-seek in the school rather than getting education and learning new things.

The school does not have a boundary wall and stray cattle often enter the premises. The students consider as their friends and enjoy riding on these.

The underground water is contaminated in the area, but the department has not installed a reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment plant in the school. The students are forced to drink water from a handpump.

The school is situated just 20 km away from the district headquarters, but hardly any senior official of the Education Department has visited the school in the long past.

Khushpreet Kaur, a student of class V, said: "Sometimes master ji teaches us and sometimes we do the work ourselves. We keep playing for the rest of the time".

Sukhwinder Singh said: "The school has five sanctioned posts of teacher and a principal, but only two have been filled. A female teacher was appointed here, but she has been on a maternity leave since the past four months".

There are 34 students enrolled in class I, 52 in class II, 40 in class III, 30 in class IV and 50 in class V.

Gurinder Singh, panchayat member, said the matter had been brought to the notice of the district education officer a number of times, but no action had been taken.

Gurinder Kaur, District Education Officer (DEO), Muktsar, said: "I have recently taken the charge here. I will depute a few teachers immediately and will also inform the higher-ups about the matter".

Apology for a school

The student-teacher ratio at Government Primary School, Khunde Halal villag, is nearly seven times the prescribed limit

Sukhwinder Singh is the lone teacher, who is the one-man army at the school as he does the job of a clerk and the principal as well. He also supervises the mid-day meal

The school does not have a boundary wall and stray cattle often enter the premises

The students are forced to drink contaminated water from a handpump