Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: Flip-flop?

Calcutta, Dec. 14: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said schoolteachers could not be told not to give private tuition, seven years after his government banned the widespread practice and threatened to block salaries for flouting the bar.

“I can’t tell teachers not to give private tuition,” the chief minister told a conference of the CPM-controlled All Bengal Teachers’ Association (ABTA) in South 24-Parganas.

Virtually acknowledging the impracticality of enforcing the ban, he appeared to be leaving it to the conscience of the teachers. “Students who are rich can afford two-three private tutors. They can buy education. But if some students fall behind because they are poor, what will happen to the society? It is for you to decide,” he told the schoolteachers at the CPM gathering in Sonarpur, 25km from Calcutta.

Bhattacharjee was among the protagonists in the Left’s opposition to private tuition since the late eighties.

The ban was formally imposed after his government won the 2001 Assembly polls.

The move was aimed at improving the standard of teaching in classrooms in the wake of large-scale complaints that schoolteachers were not concentrating on classes because of their preoccupation outside.

Following the ban, teachers of state-aided schools were told to give an undertaking that they would not indulge in private tuition. Several senior ministers had campaigned against private tuition at public meetings.

“However, there was resentment among members of the ABTA and the teaching community as a whole about the ban on private tuition. The chief minister’s statement today is aimed at wooing the teachers when the Lok Sabha polls are round the corner,” a teacher of a state-aided school said.

Police complaints had been lodged at various places against schoolteachers giving private tuition.

A government school teacher said: “The chief minister’s statement today suggests the government may now take a liberal stand on the ban.”

Many hardliners in the CPM, however, still feel pri- vate tuition by schoolteachers should not be allowed.

For the first time, the chief minister today conceded that many teachers did not give their 100 per cent in school despite the ban. “In some schools, teachers are not paying enough attention to students. As a result, students are falling behind.”

He also urged schoolteachers to devote themselves to classrooms and help slow learners. “We should also think about those who can’t always secure first division.”

Some guardians had earlier moved a petition in the high court saying it had become difficult to get private tutors because of the rush for teachers of non-government schools after the ban. The judge dismissed it, saying it was an administrative issue and there was no violation of law.