THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the controversial draft National Education Policy recommending teaching Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states created uproar in the south Indian states, Kerala grapples with a different issue. It does not have Hindi teachers at the lower primary levels. The contract staff appointed by the department are now teaching Hindi in Class V in the lower primary section. To a query on faculty to teach Hindi at LP schools, the Education Minister C Ravindranath said that there was neither fulltime staff to teach Hindi in the LP section and nor a provision to create post of Hindi language teachers in the LP schools.
However, the sub-district educational officers engage part-time Hindi teachers in these LP schools. Hindi is mandatory in Kerala only from Class V.According to KC Harikrishnan, Kerala School Teachers Association, general secretary, Hindi faculty is not a problem with the schools that have lower primary and upper primary or high school.
The headmaster can engage the contract teacher to teach Hindi across the levels. However, it becomes a problem in schools that have LP schools till Class V as there is no provision for appointing language teachers. There are hundreds of such schools in Kerala. “In these schools, at present, we are engaging part-time teachers, who get full-time benefits “ Harikrishnan says. The part-time language teachers in these schools are underutilised or in some cases asked to teach other subjects to meet the scope of service rules. “There are some systemic issues which have to be addressed,” he said.
The service rule states that the language teachers who were given full-time benefit of teachers will be given full time duty as well (GO(MS)No62/73/school issued on 02-05-1973). The circular issued by the Director of Public Instructor (H(2)/34017/2017/DPI issued 20.06.2017) also says that the service of language teachers should be clubbed with neighbouring schools in order to provide them full time duty in proportion to the full time benefit they draw. In case there are no neighbouring schools, the headmasters should provide full time duty for the part time teachers in the respective schools itself, the circular says.
Education Minister, Ravindranath, however, said such cases were insignificant numbers when compared with the number of LP sections in the state. The department, he said, has already made provision to teach the students Hindi by launching ‘Surili Hindi’ in upper primary section, a project for improving Hindi learning, which has now been expanded to lower primary sections as well. He said that the department was also sourcing Samagra Shiksha trainers.
Language block
The contract staff appointed by the department are now teaching Hindi in Class V in the lower primary section
There was neither fulltime staff to teach Hindi in the LP section and nor a provision to create post of Hindi language teachers in the LP schools
Hindi is mandatory in Kerala only from Class V.