The Government Model Primary School in Domlur with 122 students had five teachers to teach classes one to seven. But, they were in for a rude shock earlier this month as two teachers were identified as excess and told to be redeployed in other schools in the district.
Despite the Department of Public Instruction’s own norms stating that primary schools with student strength between 121 and 150 should have six teachers, the school will be left with only three teachers after the redeployment exercise.
One of the teachers of the school said it would be impossible to run seven classes with just three teachers.
The teacher explained that excess posts were identified as last year’s District Information System for Education data had stated that there were 110 students and seven teachers as per records of the department based on which the redeployment exercise was carried out. “On the field things have changed, and the State government cannot go ahead with the redeployment process using that data. This will be detrimental to several schools whose strength have improved drastically this year, as many teachers will be pulled out from such schools,” a teacher pointed out.
A senior official of the department pointed out that the DISE data of 2015-16 was considered as it was “foolproof”, but pointed out that the number of teachers was calculated based on the actual situation on the field.
Teachers say the District Information System for Education data is outdated
