‘Education policy needs better facilities’

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Apr 25, 2014: K.K. Manjunath Kumar, former organising secretary of State Teachers Association, said on Wednesday that better infrastructure facilities should be provided to schools to implement the uniform national education policy in the State.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Kumar said that the State government’s decision to implement the uniform education policy was welcome. But presently teachers and students faced problems with regard to the facilities provided.

For the policy to be successful, the teacher-student ratio needed to be 1:40. Presently, the teacher-student ratio in schools was 1:70.

When such large number of students were present in the classroom, it was difficult for the teachers to do Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). In addition to the teachers, even the students and parents would have to bear additional burden. Hence the government should keep the CCE in abeyance till teacher-student ratio was brought down to 1:40.

Just as there was uniform education policy, there should be uniform salaries for the teachers throughout the country to maintain equality. There was huge difference in the remuneration given to the teachers of SSLC and PUC for evaluation.

While the SSLC teachers got just Rs. 10.60 per script, the PUC teachers got Rs. 21 per script.

So too, while the SSLC teachers got a Dearness Allowance (DA) of Rs. 260, the PUC teachers got a DA of Rs. 520. The SSLC teachers should be given paid leave for 30 days as the evaluation was done during vacations.

The government should also follow a continuous promotion system. The teachers should be promoted as head teachers or lectures. The lecturers should be promoted to the posts of principals.

Even after teachers of aided schools and colleges were transferred, their seniority should be protected and they should get all available facilities. The new pension scheme provided to government school employees should be extended to employees of aided schools.