NEW DELHI: Hundreds of teachers of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools on Tuesday staged a protest in front of the MCD headquarters at Civic Centre against the skewed teacher-student ratio being followed in the institutions and pending salary arrears.
Speaking to this newspaper, Ashok Kasana, general secretary of Progressive Party Union for Teachers who was leading the protest at the site, said that the transfer/posting policy of MCD-led schools is against the interest of its teachers. He said that the salary arrears of many teachers, accumulated up to `2-3 lakh in some cases, were pending for many months.
A teacher at an MCD school in the Anand Nagar area, who did not wish to be named, said, “The allocation policy in MCD schools is in violation of the NEP policy, as the policy states that teachers will be posted as per the enrolment of students in the class.”
“However, in August, what MCD did was that they allocated postings on the basis of the average strength of students in the class (the attendance of students was less in August due to various reasons like eye flu etc), neglecting the total number of students enrolled in the class. This led to the reduction of teachers in the schools, which means that in future, teachers would not be available for students and many teachers will end up taking many classes,” the teacher added.
This has also led to a situation where teachers are being transferred to other schools to maintain the ratio, he said. “The education policy says that there should be one teacher for enrolled 40 students. However, what the MCD did is that even if the total maximum attendance of students in the month of August for both mediums (English and Hindi) is up to 45, only one teacher is posted for it and this has increased the burden of the teacher,” said Devender Singh, a teacher at an MCD school in Mayur Vihar (Phase I). Commenting on the issue, a senior MCD official said that they will look into the matter.