A government lower primary school at Idakani near Kalasa in Mudigere taluk has not had a regular teacher for the last two months. This has left the parents and school development monitoring committee worried about the future of the 16 students enrolled in the school.
The only assistant teacher appointed to the school was transferred two months ago. Since then, there have been none.
The Education Department made a temporary arrangement by appointing a local graduate as guest faculty. However, the guest faculty has no formal training in teaching.
Prashanth Shetty, a resident of the village told The Hindu, “It is okay if the department appoints a guest faculty in addition to regular teachers.
But, allowing a guest faculty to run a school is not a good idea. Our school needs a regular teacher.” The teacher has to teach all the subjects from class 1 to 5, which is a herculean task. Besides teaching, they have other responsibilities like overseeing midday meal staff. Moreover, guest faculty do not get honorarium regularly.
The midday meal staff are also finding it difficult to manage as there is no regular teachers to maintain records of expenditure and procure vegetables required. At present, they are managing with the help of SDMC members.
Villagers and SDMC members have appealed to senior officers of the department to depute a regular teacher to the school. A resident has also written to Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S. Suresh Kumar about the school. They are expecting a reply from him.
When The Hindu contacted K.N. Jayanna, Deputy Director of Public Instruction, he said a guest faculty had been appointed to the school as of now.
