Karan SharmaLudhiana: The government school officials have raised concerns over the latestofficial notification regarding the appointment of around 553 govt school teachers to attend the training sessions of drug and socio-economic census, which is being conducted by the state to assess the success of its anti-drug measures and socio-economic schemes. The census is already underway in the state.The authorities concerned have requisitioned the teachers from schools across all designations including master cadre, lecturer, primary cadre, computer faculty, vocational lecturer, head master/mistress, and other subject teachersThe notification includes a detailed list of govt school teachers across Ludhiana, but some of the schools have received a high number of duty appointments, including govt senior secondary school at PAU, fromwhere around 111 teachers have been called to join the exercise.Similarly, a large number of teachers have been summoned from various schools of the city, including 31 from the School of Eminence (SOE) Jawahar Nagar, 21 from govt primary school at Phullanwal, 28 from govt primary school in Sunet and 38 teachers from PM Shri government school cemetery road, Ludhiana.Principals from several schools have raised concerns by stating that many of their teaching staff have already been engaged in various ongoing non-teaching duties, including Special Intensive Revision (SIR), census and election duties of BLOs.“I have a double shift school and teachers from my school are already performing duties as BLOs and duties in the SIR. Now a high number of staff has been called for drug census training. Such actions will only affect the school’s study environment and the teachers will not be able to do their actual job. The administration should rethink this matter as in the future of kids. There will be serious staff shortage and the schools will be half empty,” said a govt school principal. Other school principals also echoed similar concerns.The education department officials stated that the matter was under discussion with the administration officials. Deputy district education officer, (DEO) Amandeep Singh said, “Adiscussion of this matter was held today with the officials concerned. Wewill make adjustments in the roaster to the school’s requirements.”Meanwhile the union leaders have strongly condemned the ongoing situation.Rupinder Pal Singh Gill, Democratic Teachers Front, said, “Since thebeginning of the schools after the summer break, the education environmentin the schools is disturbed because of non teaching duties. The authoritiesshould think carefully about the situation and make sure that the educationis not affected due to such duties and trainings.”–eom–
