Shortage of teachers hits Std X students

Governmental mismanagement has yet again taken a crippling toll on schools in Maharashtra, reports Hemali Chhapia. Many state-aided institutions are grappling with teaching vacancies, forcing them to fall behind schedule. The disarray has affected all students but particularly of class X, who are gearing up for their first external examination.

The crisis has roots in a student census the state conducted last October in which it found lakhs of "bogus" pupils on schools' rolls. P 4

Reasoning that the survey showed many schools had surplus teachers, it stopped new appointments. Fresh hirings are used every year to fill 10,000 vacancies left behind by schoolteachers exiting the system. At the same time, it decided to take stock of additional teachers and move them to schools with a shortage. The process is a work in progress.

With no new appointments, many state-aided schools have been forced to use their existing staff to take additional lectures for no extra pay. In some schools, teachers have been urged to handle extra subjects. The worst affected have been students from higher classes.

State-wide, schools schedule their class X timetable in such a way that the syllabus gets completed by December or January, thereby giving students enough time to prepare for the board examinations. "But with insufficient teachers, the schedule is difficult to keep up with," confessed a principal of a Mumbai school.

School education director Sridhar Salunkhe insisted the state will "soon start the process of transferring surplus teachers to the schools that need them". The process was stayed because of a petition filed before the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court. Earlier this week, the court directed the state to present its plan of action within a month.

For schools wrestling with staff crunch, testing times may not end very soon. "The state will have to first draw up a list of surplus teachers and then assign them to the schools that need them based on qualifications. This is going to take a couple of months," admitted an official.

Aruna Galgali, principal of Poorna Pragnya High School, said the institution has been forced to cancel several classes because of lack of teachers. "I am facing a dharam sankat (moral dilemma). I feel guilty because we are not doing justice to the children. A few new teachers who have been appointed are working without a salary."

Sanjay Patil, treasurer of headmasters' association, too said several schools have cancelled classes or have asked teachers to shoulder additional workload. "I wish the government had managed this situation differently," he said.

P M Raut, president of the Mahamumbai School Teachers' Association, concluded, "Although the government wants quality education, it is not filling up teaching vacancies. How then do we provide good education?"