With teachers on poll duty, govt schools in Ludhiana wear a deserted look
Around 5,000 government school teachers from across the district have been deputed on polling duty.
A day before the zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls, government schools in Ludhiana wore a deserted look as the teachers were sent to collect polling material from designated venues on Tuesday.
At some of the schools, principals merged the classes so that the remaining staff could teach the students.
Around 5,000 government school teachers from across the district have been deputed on polling duty.
The development comes when the faculty have to make the students revise syllabus ahead of the summative assessment-1 examinations scheduled to begin on September 24.
At Government Model Senior Secondary School, Cemetery Road, 17 teachers of Classes 6-12 have been deployed at election duty due to which the remaining 13 teachers are taking the lectures.
One of the teacher said, “We have combined the sections to maintain discipline in the school. The problem was only for one day, so, the other staff managed to take the classes.”
Another teacher said, “It is difficult to manage the classes with only three teachers in the school against the 17 sanctioned posts.”
The situation was no different at the Government High School, Jaspal Bangar, where three teachers were handling five classes of 400 students. The existing staff said, “It was a task to handle a huge strength. The government must depute regular staff from other departments to conduct elections so that students don’t suffer.”
At Government Senior Secondary School, Nasrali, only two teachers managed to conduct the classes of students from 6 to 12, while at the Government Primary School, Dugri, which has a strength of 375 students, out of 10 regular teachers, seven have been deputed on poll duty.