The teacher unions have decided to send a representation to HRM Minister Prakash Javadekar, UT Administrator V P Singh Badnore and UT Adviser Parimal Rai. (Representational Image)
Up in arms against the orders of UT Education Secretary BL Sharma, teachers’ unions on Thursday said they will not accept any show cause notice as “it wasn’t teachers’ fault in the schools poor performance”. The union blamed the government’s no detention policy as well as the policy of giving grace marks responsible for the poor results. Swaran Singh Kamboj, President of UT Cadre Educational Employees Union, told Chandigarh Newsline, “We will not accept any show cause notice. We will ask the officials to withdraw them. What do teachers do when students who come from Class IX to Class X don’t even know how to write the name of their school properly. The policy of Right to Education which says that a child cannot be detained till Class VIII is responsible for the poor results because students are promoted even when they don’t know how to write anything.”
He added, “Moreover, you can’t even touch a child even if he doesn’t concentrate on studies. You haven’t given any rights to the teachers. So, how can you expect good marks.” Bhag Singh Kairon, President of the Joint Action Committee of Teachers in Chandigarh, said it was unjust to serve these notices. “We had a meeting with the education secretary on June 1 when we explained to him the reasons for poor performance – like shortage of teachers. One teacher is teaching 90 students. There are many schools without heads, no detention policy and various others. Even then, these people are issuing show cause notices, that is not fair. We will protest if teachers are served notices,” said Kairon.
The Unions have decided to send a representation to HRM Minister Prakash Javadekar, UT Administrator V P Singh Badnore and UT Adviser Parimal Rai. Kamboj added that remedial classes were of no use. “Has the department even seen what is happening in the remedial classes? Only four to five students are coming but the teacher still has to come. And this vacation period is teachers’ earned leave in which they have been asked to take remedial classes.”
With more than half the government school students failing to clear Class X this year, Sharma had directed the director, school education, to issue show cause notices to the principals or heads of such institutes whose pass percentage is below 50. Sharma had stated that “punitive action” would be initiated if the replies were “unsatisfactory”. Punitive action according to Sharma meant suspension.
The education secretary also directed that the performance of schools must be reflected in the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) of the teachers concerned. The ACRs will be written in an objective manner like a score will be given on the school’s performance, he had stated. A total of 10,850 government school students appeared for the Class X exam this year. But 5,567 students, which is 51.49 per cent, failed.Government Model Senior Secondary School (GMSSS), Sector 38 (West), Chandigarh, performed the worst with a pass percentage of just 7.94. Next in line was GMHS, Sector 22C, with 8.11 per cent followed by GMHS, Karsan, with 13.1 pass percentage.