Due to the dearth of teachers, the students have been cramped in the classrooms, which is likely to result in poor academic performance and even dropouts. [break]
Take for instance, Gyanodaya Secondary School. Most of the classrooms are holding almost triple the number of students prescribed by the government. A staggering 120 pupils are adjusted in a single classroom in stark contrast to the state´s decree that a classroom should not hold more than 45 students.
That is not all. This school, much like other public schools in the district, is conducting two classes simultaneously.
“A teacher conducts two classes in a single period now,” laments Yam Bahadur Kayat, principal of the school, adding that the secondary school needed eight teachers to run the classes smoothly.
Jana Primary School in Bohora, ShivaShakti Primary School in Devisthan, Hill Namuna Primary School in Nisi, Nanuma Primary School and Bal Jyoti Primary School in Bowang, and Ganga Primary School in Burtibang share similar harrowing tales.
As the District Education Office (DEO), which is supposed to appoint the teachers, is caught napping in the process, some of these schools have appointing teachers on a contract basis to ease the situation.
“Due to the lack of teachers, we are just engaging the students. This is as good as playing with their future,” says Khud Bahadur Gurung, principal of Darling Secondary School.
Though there are seven posts for the teachers at primary level, only four teachers have been appointed so far, he adds.
The DEO itself admits that there is an urgent requirement of additional 143 lower secondary teachers, 163 secondary teachers and 86 higher secondary teachers to run the classes smoothly.
“We are preparing to transfer teachers from other schools to these schools,” DEO official Tilak Silwal says circumspectly.
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