Gujarat government work hurting education?

The government’s numerous programmes it seems is impairing the education in municipal primary schools of Ahmedabad.

According to sources, government rules state that classes need to the conducted for at least 240 days in a year.

"But thanks to the various government programmes for which teachers are pressed in to service, the municipal schools have not been able to conduct classes for more than 40 to 50 days," said the source.

The civic body authorities have been making tall claims about improving the level of education in municipal primary schools. In fact, it also served notices to a number of teachers for non-performance following the Gunotsav results. However, sources said that the teachers are not able to take a class due to a host of government programmes.

Since beginning of the academic year in June, the teachers and students are busy with various programmes including enrolment, tree plantation, civic body elections, Diwali vacation, Khel Mahakumbh, Kankaria carnival, Kite Festival, visit to Mahatma Mandir, census and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) among others.

"The teachers are hardly able to focus on teaching," said sources in Ahmedabad Municipal School Board. "At present, schools are closed for three days as the teachers are busy with census work and SSA training," said Habib Mew, a former member of Ahmedabad Municipal School Board.

He said that instead of focusing on education, the ruling party is busy with celebrations leading to poor education standards in schools. "The teachers are also fed up with the government programmes," he said.

"After I heard of mismanagement in municipal primary schools, I personally visited various schools in Gomtipur where I found Gujarati school 1 and2, Urdu school 6 and7 and Marathi School 1 and 6 closed and children waiting outside the classroom," said Iqbal Shaikh, Congress corporator from Gomtipur.

He also said that municipal school board chairman Manubhai Raval could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. The civic body officials, meanwhile, are defending themselves terming the census work as national duty.

"Education was affected only during the Kankaria carnival and Kite festival and not otherwise. At present most of the teachers are busy with census work but we have reserved some for teaching too," said Manubhai Raval, chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal School Board.