Punjab Cabinet approves Rationalisation Policy

To overcome shortage of teachers in higher and senior secondary schools, Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rationalisation Policy, which will help in efficacious and judicious utilisation of the services of teachers.

The decision, taken under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, is aimed at ensuring optimal utilisation of human resources in schools where there are either no teachers or deficient staff.

The Rationalisation Policy 2018-19 will also help remove the distinction amongst various categories of schools and teachers to be posted irrespective of the nature of schools, an official spokesperson said.

As per this policy, the post of Head Teacher would only be created in primary schools if the number of students is more than 60 – a move that would motivate teachers to increase the strength of primary schools and prevent wastage of available manpower. The teacher student ratio at the state level in various cadres is 27 in primary schools, 22 for middle schools, 16 in high schools and 29 for senior secondary schools. This is well within the norms but there is still shortage of teachers at both inter district and intra district levels.

The policy makes it mandatory for school principals to take classes (12 periods per week for Principals and 15 periods per week for Headmasters).

The present duration of class period is 35 minutes, and the policy has restored it to its earlier duration of 40 minutes. The restoration of previous period time would reduce the periods per week from 54 to 48 periods. The school timings would continue to be from 9 am to 3.20 pm, said the spokesperson.

The policy also notes that many of the teachers preferred to get themselves posted in middle schools since there were no Board exams.

As per the norms, there are 7 sanctioned posts in the middle schools with average strength of 22 students, which amounts to high level of under- utilization of the teachers, whereas, at the same time, there is shortage of teachers in the High and Senior Secondary Schools.