Talk while you walk but not at work, especially when you teach!
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, Feb 5: ``Talk while you walk,’’ may well be the catch-line of the television ad featuring Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan. But, it certainly does not apply at the place where you work, especially when you teach !

This is the stern message that is sought to be conveyed by the Karnataka Government, if the state’s Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri has his way.

In a move to bring in discipline among the teaching staff, Kageri said the state government has decided to ban the use of cell phones by teachers of all government and aided primary schools, high schools and junior colleges during working hours across the State.

It may be recalled that the state government has already banned the use of cell phones by students in all government and aided schools and junior colleges in the State.

Addressing a news conference, the minister disclosed that the government was forced to ban the use of cell phones during the school and college hours by
teachers in view of several complaints by students that their study classes were disturbed by use of cell phones by teachers.

The minister mentioned that he had received complaints from students during his tours in several districts and interaction with students in schools and colleges in the state.

An official circular would be issued to all schools and colleges to prohibit use of cell phones by teachers during the class hours, he said.

He, however, made it clear that head masters and college principals would be allowed to use the phones only for administrative work in their respective offices but not in classes.

Karnataka has approximately three lakh government teachers and lecturers working in over 40,000 government and aided schools and junior colleges.

In another move, Kageri said all teachers and lectures have been instructed to use Kannada language for marking their attendance in schools or colleges as part of the Government’s efforts to promote the use of the official language of the state.

Teachers and lecturers mark their attendance in English as ‘P’ for present and ‘A’ for absent. But, he pointed out that a large number of teachers were in the habit of over-writing both ‘A’ and ‘P’ alphabets according to their convenience, which caused problems.

To enhance the quality of school textbooks and brightness, the Education Department has decided to laminate cover pages of all textbooks from class I to class X from the ensuing academic year, he said pointing out that that about 3.25 crore textbooks would be printed with the new design at a cost of Rs 65 crore.