By Alkesh Sharma, IANS,
Chandigarh : Teachers and principals of government schools in Chandigarh had better watch out – trouble awaits them if their students perform badly.
In the wake of the poor show by Class 10 and 12 students in the board exams, the principals and other faculty members of government schools will be held accountable from this academic session onwards.
“We have to bring a change in our education system and need to make every principal and teacher accountable for the good or poor result of the government school,” Ram Niwas, home-cum-education secretary, told IANS.
Niwas added: “If we find negligence among the principals on a regular basis despite several warnings, they would be demoted to the rank of vice-principal. If the principal still fails to improve the performance of the school, especially board classes, then he or she would be given permanent retirement.”
These decisions will come into force from the ongoing session and teachers and principals would be evaluated according to the results of 2009-10.
There are nearly 85 government schools in Chandigarh, of which 30 are up to Class 12.
In the academic session 2008-09, 7,285 and 7,558 students respectively appeared for Class 10 and Class 12 exams under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The pass percentage of Class 10 and Class 12 respectively was 65.02 and 79.16 percent.
Clamping down on regular and contractual teachers, Niwas said: “If regular teachers are found guilty of any kind of laxity or of poor teaching then they would be debarred from their increments. In extreme cases the administration can even suspend them from their services.”
He said if the contractual teachers were found responsible for the poor results of their concerned classes then their contract would be terminated with immediate effect.
This decision of the administration has evoked a mixed response among the principals and parents of the students.
“We are quite unhappy with this decision of the administration as sometimes the situation is not under our control. Undoubtedly our teachers do hard work, but they cannot accompany the students for the whole day to assure good results,” a serving principal of a leading government school, told IANS on condition of anonymity.
Another principal said: “The main reason for overall poor performance is the staff crunch that we have been facing for the last couple of years. There are over 800 posts of teachers vacant, but nobody is paying heed towards that.”
She added: “In many schools, there is a complete dearth of competent staff and in some cases primary teachers are teaching secondary classes. Moreover, many times our staff members are sent on other official duties during the school hours; so how can they expect good results from us?”
Pushpa Sharma, a parent, said: “It is a very logical decision to directly hold the principal guilty for the poor results of the school. Now when he sees a sword hanging over his head he would automatically make his teachers work to bring better result.”
In the 2008-09 results, the pass percentage in Class 10 was below 50 percent in 29 government schools in Chandigarh. Only 13 government schools achieved a pass percentage above 90 percent and only one school had achieved 100 percent result in Class 10.
In the same academic year, no government school achieved cent percent result in Class 12, while only five schools managed to cross the 90-percent mark.
(Alkesh Sharma can be contacted at [email protected])