Primary teachers’ adjustment: Student strength in U.P. schools fudged to keep teachers, probe ordered
The Basic Education Department has sent a list of primary schools across the state to respective BSAs and ordered a fresh count of students in these schools
Headmasters of many government-run primary schools of the state have provided fake, hiked data regarding strength of students enrolled in their institutions, to ‘protect’ teachers from the process of adjustment and imminent transfers to other schools.
On scrutiny of the enrollment data, officers of the state Basic Education Department have sent a list of 3,207 primary schools across the state to respective Basic Shiksha Adhikaris (BSAs) and ordered a fresh investigation to assess actual student strength in these schools, officials aware of the move said.
The count of teachers in a school is decided based on the strength of students enrolled in the institution, and teachers of those schools that have fewer students, face the prospect of transfer to other schools of their district having more students, as part of the intra-district adjustment process, officials explained.
Officials informed that on the orders of the Allahabad high court, the adjustment process for teachers of government-run primary schools is being done on the basis of the student strength as on June 30, 2024 instead of March 31, 2024.
In the missive sent to BSAs, the basic education department officials have said that in the list sent from all 75 districts, there is a possibility that the student strength of 3,207 primary schools has been increased to 61, 91, 121 and 151 etc with malicious intent instead of recording the correct student strength.
Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act-2009, there is a provision of two teachers for 61 to 90 students, three for 91 to 120 students, four for 121 to 150 students and five teachers for 151 to 200 students even as for schools having over 200 students, five teachers and one headmaster has been specified.
In the government primary schools of the state, the student strength was recorded as 61, 91, 121 so that teachers serving in the institutions could skip the adjustment process and the mandatory transfer to another school.
The basic education department officers have raised serious objections to this. The BSAs have been warned that strict action will be taken if it is confirmed that the student strength has been falsely increased with malicious intent, reads the missive, a copy of which is with HT.
BSAs have been asked to personally check the student strength of the listed schools and email a letter for data correction, if necessary.
In the list of such schools suspected to have falsely hiked students’ enrollment data, the highest 128 are in Jaunpur, followed by 122 in Sitapur. Apart from this, there are 89 schools in Hardoi, 80 in Gonda, 78 in Sultanpur, besides 76 schools in Prayagraj, 52 in Pratapgarh and 30 in Kaushambi among others.