Guwahati, Jan. 10: Dispur has found several government schoolteachers allegedly involved in the promotion of private institutions in the state.

Sources told The Telegraph that the matter has reached such a pass that the secretary of secondary education, R.C. Jain, recently issued an office memorandum expressing concern over the engagement of several government school teachers as chairpersons or members in the management committees of private schools.

The memorandum said engagement in private schools was illegal and asked the erring teachers to immediately refrain from such acts.

According to government rules, no state government employees can be engaged in any private organisation. Teachers serving in government schools are also state employees.

"Despite drawing a good salary, these teachers are least interested in imparting lessons to students at vernacular medium schools and spend more time helping the private schools to flourish. Some of the leading private schools in Guwahati are engaging government school teachers to get their work done by using their clout in government and other sectors," the source said.

The development has come at a time when the poor performance of Assamese-medium or government run schools has become a matter of serious debate in the state.

Soon after declaration of the matric results in June last year, the then governor P.B. Acharya had observed that almost all rank holders were from private English-medium schools.

The governor immediately wrote to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and urged him to find out what had gone wrong with vernacular-medium schools.

The dismal state of affairs in vernacular medium schools is considered to be one of the main reasons behind the mad rush of parents to admit their children in private schools. This has also led to mushrooming of private schools in the state.

Sources said education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is in favour of stringent punitive action against the teachers. Sarma is of the opinion that keeping such teachers in government schools would be more detrimental as they are more interested in promoting private ones. A retired government schoolteacher told this correspondent that such development is very unfortunate for the future of Assamese or vernacular medium schools.

"These acts are a complete disloyalty to one's own school. But merely issuing an office memorandum or warning will not bring an end to such a menace. The state education department will have to put in place an effective monitoring mechanism," he said.

Sources said the government also has reports that a few of the college and university teachers have invested their money on behalf of others in setting up junior colleges and other private institutions of higher education.