SURAT, May 4: Just as it appeared that the district education officer and school principals were putting their heads together to find a way out of the annual scourge of admissions to the VIIIth standard, teachers have struck an incongruous note by criticising the initiative.The Surat Shahar Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh (SSMSS) said if the authorities were to end the admission issue by packing students like sardines in classrooms -- flouting rules in the process -- teachers would not sign muster rolls and would boycott teaching.
The talk of admitting more than 60 students per class was as much hot air as illegal, association president Laxmanbhai Patel and joint secretary Amrut Trivedi said, adding that by working out such an arrangement both DEO Punambhai Patel and Principals' Association were working against the interests of students.
It was not the principals but the teachers who had to enter the classrooms and teach the students, they said while criticising the arrangement. The problem would be more acute in Adajan and Rander areas, they said, adding that if the DEO was not aware of the rules it was the duty of principals to point them out to him.The association claimed that given the size of classrooms it was not possible to stash 60 or more students in each of them. Instead the DEO should clear applications by schools for introducing more classes for standard VIII.
Meanwhile, the association has extended its support to the agitation launched by teachers of private primary recognised schools demanding salaries as sanctioned by the Fifth Pay Commission.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
