The Hindu : `Teacher posts lying vacant in rural schools'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Pondicherry

`Teacher posts lying vacant in rural schools'

By Our Staff Reporter

Pondicherry April 2. Shortage of teachers in government schools in rural areas has affected students and the pass percentage in public examinations was poor in places such as Sorapet, said the ruling Congress member, P. Angalan, during the question hour in the Assembly today.

Mr. Angalan said he had brought to the notice of the Government the lack of teachers in the Government High School, Sorapet, even during the last year's budget session. But the vacancies were yet to be filled. Last year, the SSLC pass percentage was only 25 per cent. This year also, any improvement in the results was unlikely, he said.

R. Kamalakannan and R. Nalamaharajan (both Congress), hailing from the Karaikal region, also expressed concern over non-filling of vacancies in rural schools in their region. Mr. Kamalakannan said though teachers were selected, they preferred posting in Pondicherry. He appealed to the Education Minister, K. Lakshminarayanan, to issue orders posting teachers from among the waitlisted candidates to Karaikal.

Mr. Nalamaharajan said if teachers were not willing to work in Karaikal villages then the administration could recruit hands on a contract basis or consolidated salary basis.

The AIADMK member, A. Anbalagan, alleged imbalance in the teacher-pupil ratio. He said that in a government high school at Uppalam, for 32 students, there were six teachers. There were schools that lacked adequate number of teachers. This imbalance should be rectified, he said.

Intervening, Mr. Lakshminarayanan told the members that orders for posting teachers in Karaikal would be issued soon. He also welcomed the suggestion of Mr. Nalamaharajan to post hands on a contract basis.

`Set up minorities panel'

The former Chief Minister, V. Vaithilingam (Congress), urged the Government to set up a State-level minorities commission to identify minorities.

Participating in a debate during the question hour, Mr. Vaithilingam said that unless the people coming under the minority category were identified, there would be difficulty in extending benefits to them.

The Welfare Minister, M. Chandirakasu, told the member that a commission was not feasible as the expenditure would be too high. However, he said, the Backward Classes Welfare Corporation was now dealing with the minorities.

Mr. Vaithilingam said the corporation activities were restricted to implementing the schemes. A commission alone would be able to identify the minorities, he contended.

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