Terming baseless the reports of closure of schools and abolishing the posts, Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gurjar said some schools with low student strength have been merged with the schools within the nearest 3 km radius. (File)Amid protests against the merger of 105 government schools having a smaller number of students with the nearby government schools available within the radius of three km, Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gurjar Monday said that the then Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had closed 124 primary schools in 2011 and 385 primary schools in 2014.
On the call of Haryana School Lecturers Association (HSLA), the school teachers staged a protest in Panchkula on Monday against the “faulty rationalisation” and merger of schools. The students, accompanied by their parents, staged protests in front of their schools in several villages. They alleged that some schools have been left out without teachers of important subjects like math and science in the ongoing process of rationalisation and transfer of teachers.
The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are demanding filling of 38,000 vacant posts of teachers in government schools.
Terming baseless the reports of closure of schools and abolishing the posts, Gurjar said some schools with low student strength have been merged with the schools within the nearest 3 km radius. “The department will neither close any school nor will it abolish the posts of teachers, but after these transfers, the posts which remain vacant will be filled through Kaushal Rozgar Nigam and through direct recruitment. Complaints and suggestions given by teacher organisations are also being considered.”
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On the online transfer drive “being run to overcome the shortage of teachers in schools”, the minister said “these transfers of teachers are being done to maintain the teacher-student ratio as per the guidelines of the Right to Education Act norms”.
Gurjar said that the education department is executing the work regarding the transfer drive in a transparent and fair manner. “In some schools, the strength of teachers is not equivalent to the strength of students. In view of this, the department is trying to ensure the prescribed student-teacher ratio is maintained in every school across the state,” he added.
He said that there are many schools where the number of students is very less and because of this the teachers are teaching only for two periods in a day.
The education minister said the department is making efforts to take special care of the science faculty in these transfers so that the science students can also get an adequate number of teachers.
Gurjar said that teachers are being appointed in the schools where the number of students is increasing and new teachers will be recruited against vacant posts in the state.