CHANDIGARH: You could fail to clear your math or science or English or social science paper in Class X but still get to teach any of these subjects in a government primary school in Punjab. No, that isn’t a joke. An RTI query has revealed that many teachers recruited by government schools in the last ten years are doing exactly that.
The query, seeking details of all teachers in Punjab government schools, was made by Harpreet Singh Sandhu, the sarpanch of Mohrewala village in Ferozepur. He is also the vice-president of Social Reformers, an NGO that has been trying to find out why the performance of students in these schools has declined in the past few years and why parents do not want to send their children to such institutions.
Punjab embarrassment
In Moga, 59 teachers are teaching the subject they failed in—31 are teaching math, 10 English, six science, one Hindi and 11 social science
This year, around one lakh students failed in math and 70,000 in English.
Although information has so far been received only from ten districts, the data show that 313 teachers teaching in various government primary schools did not clear their math, science, English, social science or Hindi papers in Class X.
In Moga, 59 teachers are teaching the subject they had failed in—31 are teaching math, 10 English, six science, one Hindi and 11 social science.
In Muktsar, there are 50 such teachers, of whom 28 had failed in math, nine in English, three in science and 10 in social sciences. In Fazilka, 31 are teaching the subject they failed in, while in Ferozepur, there are 46. Sandhu said the data clearly showed why the results of these schools were on the decline.