Nishi Agarwal (55), a government school teacher for 30 years, found some aspects of Thursday’s Delhi budget “disheartening”. On the allocation of Rs 175 crore to install CCTVs in schools, she said, “Jail mein bhi itni nigrani nahin hoti.”
“It will only take away the essence of teaching. To know that they are being watched constantly will make teachers — and even children — uncomfortable. If they want to keep kids safe, why don’t they use the money to hire better guards and security personnel,” said Agarwal, a science teacher at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Ramjas Lane.
She also said that the government’s move to give tablets to teachers will “burden them”.
“Right now, we manually record attendance and other details, and then the IT professional uploads them. With tablets, the first period will go in uploading details. Also, tablets cannot be used to teach a class with 60-70 students. The government needs to think of such policies,” said Agarwal.
She also voiced concerns on the school management committees being allocated Rs 5 lakh each. “There have been many occasions of the MLA nominee of an SMC misbehaving at the school. Why can’t the school principal be allowed to function independently?” she said.