Assam: Teachers’ association speaks out against new education department rule

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The Department of School Education recently published a notice stating that half a day of casual leave will be deducted if a teacher is late or leaves before the specified time for two days every month. The Assam State Primary Teachers Association has spoken against this new rule and asked the department to improve the Siksha Setu app and connected devices before implementing this order.

Speaking about the development, the general secretary of the association, Ratul Chandra Goswami mentioned that they are not against the implementation of the Siksha Setu app but the department does not accept that there are faults in the app. He mentioned that both the Siksha Setu application and the mobile devices issued by the department to use the application are not technically sturdy enough, as a result of which the teachers are often forced to use the app from phones. However since the department is receiving the data in the correct procedure, they think that the application as well as the devices are working perfectly, which is far from the reality.

He demanded that the faults and problems of the application and the devices be removed as the teachers have been stuck with these duties for quite some time now. Every day they are forced to keep working with the system which fails to work every now and then, thus losing precious time as well as affecting their mental well-being, which will show its effect on the education of the young children in the long run.

He also added that those teachers serving in the char areas often have to take long trips and even take multiple boat rides to reach their schools, but the department has given no relaxation to those teachers as well. He said that in such conditions, it is impossible for the teachers to agree to the new order of deduction of casual leaves in case a teacher is late by just 15 minutes for two days. He also said that the implementation of this system should be postponed till the app and tabs are made completely fault-free.

He said that the education department should look into the solving of problems faced by the schools and the teachers instead of increasing the pressure on teachers adding that the Right To Educations Act was passed in 2009, but its implementation in Assam remains at a mere 11.50% as schools still face infrastuctral and other problems. He also added that the records with the Union Ministry of Education show that Assam still has over 3000 schools with just one teacher. Although the ministry had ordered the state to take appropriate steps to resolve this problem, no step was taken in this direction. Also, the state education department should take more interest in resolving the issues regarding the schools of the state, instead of putting extra pressure on the teachers of the state.

 Also read: Samagra Shiksha, Assam to train 4,000 teachers under National Education Policy (sentinelassam.com)

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