THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Digital classes on KITE-Victers channel and additional online classes at the school level — the government’s plan for the general education sector in the wake of the raging pandemic. But how will these online sessions be carried out in many higher secondary schools that do not have even a single teacher for a subject? The government doesn’t seem to have any answers.
The filling of teachers’ vacancies in higher secondary schools has been put on the back burner for the past year and a half. Unlike high schools, the higher secondary sector has dozens of course combinations, with only one teacher to handle a particular subject in many schools. With the Plus I examinations scheduled in August, students who have been deprived of proper classes for such subjects are groping in the dark.
“Though KITE-Victers channel offers classes in digital mode, it is highly inadequate for students who have chosen subjects such as journalism, computer applications, Arabic and Urdu,” said a principal of a government higher secondary school in Idukki. According to figures accessed from the Higher Secondary directorate, close to 1,000 teachers’ vacancies are yet to be filled in the government sector. If the vacancies in aided higher secondary schools are also taken into account, it would come up to well over 2,000, a source said.
General Education Minister V Sivankutty had told assembly that many teachers have been given appointment orders but they can join duty only when schools reopen. However, teachers’ unions term this as a ploy by the government to delay appointments indefinitely to reduce burden on state exchequer. “Urgent appointments should be carried out at least in subjects having only a single teacher in a school. If that is not possible, permission should be given to appoint guest teachers,” demanded Anil M George, general secretary of Higher Secondary School Teachers’ Association.
Posts not approved for six years
The government is yet to approve the creation of posts in 54 HS batches — 27 each in government and aided sector. These were created in 2014-15 and 2015-16 when new batches Plus II were sanctioned and teachers have been working in these posts without salary for past six years. After a hue and cry by the non-approved aided school teachers, the government approved a few posts earlier this year, but many are yet to be filled. The aggrieved higher secondary teachers have approached the government with a petition to approve their posts but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.