Tota Singh admits to teacher shortage

FEROZEPORE, Dec 14: Despite efforts by the Punjab government to fill the large number of vacant post of teachers all over the state, ther...

FEROZEPORE, Dec 14: Despite efforts by the Punjab government to fill the large number of vacant post of teachers all over the state, there was still shortage of teachers in schools in the districts of Ferozepore, Amritsar and Patiala, apart from schools in Kandi area and the border area, where teachers avoid to take charge, disclosed Tota Singh, Education Minister at foundation laying ceremony of Guru Gobind Singh public school yesterday at village Jindran, in this district.

The minister said to fill the vacancies of JBT teachers, B.Ed teachers will be recruited to work in their place in primary schools. Punjab has an annual budget of about Rs 132 crore which is being spent on teachers’ salaries in 18,000 government schools in the state.

Tota Singh pointed out that 1,300 teachers posted over and above the sanctioned posts were working in government urban schools and they will be shifted and posted against vacant posts in rural areas. Lashing out at the previous Congress governments in the state, he said it had been upgrading schools without providing buildings and staff. This, he said, resulted in a drop out rate of 43 per cent from such mismanaged schools, which the Akali government brought down to 29 per cent and its target was to make every student a matriculate.

While justifying his decision to make English compulsory for primary classes, Tota Singh said this decision was taken to check the damage being caused to government schools by public schools and also to help the younger generation in the modern scientific era.