Jharkhand: Education Minister assures to relieve teachers from MDM duty

RANCHI: Education minister Jagarnath Mahto on Thursday assured the teachers that he would take up steps to relieve them from mid-day meal (MDM) duty so that they could focus on educating students.
The minister made the announcement during a meeting with the teachers’ organisations at his official residence here. He had called the meeting to listen to the grievances aired by the teachers and discuss ways for improving the education system in government schools.
He said, “Another discussion will be held with officials after June 18 to chalk out measures to relieve the teachers from MDM duty.”
Around half-a-dozen associations, which took part in the meeting, said the teachers were overburdened with non-teaching tasks like filing various reports, implementing MDM schemes, election duty and conducting examinations, among others.
Jharkhand +2 Sikshak Sangh president Yogendra Prasad Thakur said, “The time has come when a separate system is started to implement the MDM scheme.”
Another association member said the focus of teachers is diverted from taking classes most of the time.
The shortage of teachers was also raised strongly during the deliberation. A Jharkhand State Primary Teachers’ Association member said the acute shortage of teachers was adversely impacting the education system and pointed out that there are a large number of schools which are running with only one teacher.
Issues like inadequate infrastructure, delay in promotion of teachers, lack of subject-wise teachers in most of the schools and functioning of schools without headmasters were also cited as reasons for the fall in the standard of education in government schools.