For Bhagwant Mann’s meeting with school heads, edu officials: Private resort, 57 AC buses

The list of 2,688 participants includes district education officers (DEOs), deputy DEOs, government school principals, headmasters and block primary education officers (BPEOs) from all districts of Punjab.

According to the details of the programme chalked out by Ludhiana district administration, a high-end resort on Ferozepur road of Ludhiana has been hired for the meeting. The state education department has also written a letter (copy with The Indian Express) to state transport commissioner to arrange 57 air conditioned (AC) buses to ferry school heads and DEOs from other districts to Ludhiana.

The meeting would be held at Kingsville Resort, the letter states. An official from Ludhiana district administration told The Indian Express that the venue was picked after trying all other ‘cheaper options’.

“The education department wanted the gathering of 2,600 persons under one roof but in Ludhiana we do not have any such government auditorium or facility available which can accommodate so many people. The indoor stadium on Pakhowal road on which previous governments have spent crores, is lying in a shambles and has become a white elephant. Despite having capacity of 4000, its AC doesn’t work and it needs immediate maintenance which was proving to be too expensive. PAU auditoriums also don’t have capacity to house 2500+ persons. While Guru Nanak Stadium is an outdoor facility where it is impossible to sit under scorching sun, Guru Nanak Bhawan also cannot house 2500+ persons. Ludhiana was chosen as the venue because it is centrally located and officials have to come from entire state. We had no option but to hire a private property. Education department has agreed to pay for it,” said the official.

In the letter written to state transportation commissioner, the education department has requested for 57 AC buses for Tuesday to pick and drop school heads and DEOs from all districts. The highest number of buses – four buses each – will be provided to Amritsar, Patiala, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts. The letter adds that the payment for hiring these buses will be done to transport department in one go after receiving the bills.

Pardeep Aggarwal, director general of school education (DGSE), Punjab, said that it was an ‘education improvement’ meeting and the education department will be incurring all the expenditure.
“We had to hire a private venue due to space constraint at other venues. It is an education improvement meeting so our department will be paying for all expenditure,” said the DGSE.

Meanwhile, the school heads and DEOs, who will be attending the meeting are unaware of the agenda. But with the recent visit of CM Mann and Education Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer to Delhi to see the government schools being run by Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government, the teachers are expecting that some major announcement might be made related to ‘Delhi Model’.

“Or it might just be a session to take suggestions for improvement,” said a principal.

But for the teachers, it is a mere ‘wastage of time and resources’ amid the on-going Class 10 and 12 board exams.

“It is a complete wastage of time and resources when we all know what is lacking in government schools of Punjab. There are no teachers, the immediate priority should be to hire them instead of such optics,” says Sukhwinder Singh Chahal, state president, Government Teachers’ Union, Punjab.

“Such meetings and gathering thousands of principals and DEOs is a political optic so show that we are working. The education department has a proper hierarchy of officials and any order or discussion can be easily done or conveyed with district level meetings or online meetings. Exams are ongoing and we are already short staffed. Education ministers needs to review this decision to hold such a meeting,” said Vikram Dev, state president, Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) in a statement.