Classes cut over teacher crunch

TT, Jalpaiguri, Feb. 7: A government school here today decided to curtail classes for its primary section because of shortage of teachers.

Teachers of the Jalpaiguri Government Girls' High School held a meeting with parents of the students in primary section (from prep to Class V) today and decided to slash classes.

The children studying in prep and Classes I and II will have sessions only on Friday and Saturday, while students of Classes III, IV and V will have to come to school from Monday to Thursday.

The guidelines of the state education department say classes should be held six days a week, except on holidays.

"We have an acute shortage of teachers in the primary section. As of now, there are only two teachers in the primary section which has total 349 students," headmistress Sagarika Dutta said today.

She said the change would be effective from tomorrow.

Sources have said there are 13 sanctioned posts of teachers in the primary section. "There are four teachers in the primary section. However, one is on long leave and another is teaching in higher classes and not in the primary section with permission from the state education department. That leaves only two teachers in the primary section," the sources said.

The crisis, they said, had occurred because nine teachers had retired in the past few years and no fresh recruitment had been conducted.

"These days, the two teachers take the entire load. They in fact teach in multiple classes at a time. In one class, they assign some study work to students and move to another class to teach. That was causing inconvenience to the students," said a teacher.

The headmistress informed the district magistrate of Jalpaiguri about the decision to slash primary classes.

"The headmistress has told me about the decision. I have taken up the matter with the state education department," said Rachna Bhagat, the district magistrate.