Bantwal: Shortage of staff - Students turn teachers in government school

Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (NM)
Pics: Kishore Peraje

Bantwal, Jul 17: Issues related to government schools have always been a subject of much debate. Scarcity of staff, low student turnout, lack of basic facilities have time and again come in the way of running government schools efficiently. In one such school under Perne gram panchayat limits here, students have been forced to turn teachers due to shortage of staff.

The students at Karla Higher Primary School have to pick up the chalk and teach their fellow classmates. Reason - there are only two teachers for 99 students studying in classes one to seven.

Headmistress Varijaksha and assistant teacher Babu Gowda are struggling to meticulously manage seven classes every day. Although the school was started in 1989, the government has provided only basic facilities and recruitment of additional teachers and classrooms remain the prime concerns.

Consequently, the students of third and fourth standard are made to come together for ‘combined study’ always.
 
The situation becomes worse when one of the two teachers takes leave for any reason. The lone teacher has to manage not only all the seven classes but all the subjects as well. On Monday July 15, this is what any visitor could see. Headmistress Varijaksha took leave, and therefore, Babu Gowda had to manage all the classes and assign some work. Apart from managing the small children of first and second standards, the teacher had to make these students follow school discipline and also look after mid-day meals for them. Besides, he had the additional duty of keeping an eye on each of them as it was raining.

All the students come from financially poor families. Of the 99 students, 54 belong to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories. The parents also know the problem existing in the government school, however, they are helpless. Although, the school welfare department is aware of the situation, they have done nothing to recruit more teachers, parents say.

When Daijiworld contacted Shesha Shayala, Bantwal block education department official, he said, “Shortage of staff has been a problem in a few government schools. We will arrange guest faculty to solve the problem temporarily. We will ensure it’s done at Karla government school on priority.”