CM decries proxy teachers

Ranchi: Chief minister Raghubar Das announced on Wednesday that he plans to provide tablets to each government school to monitor attendance of teachers, many of whom, he alleged were using proxies and earning extra by giving private tuitions.

"I am aware that in some schools in remote areas teachers don't attend class. Instead, they send somebody else as proxy to teach and give his/her attendance for a minimum payment while they gave private tuition," Das said, adding that from June every school would be a given a tablet to upload attendance details of teachers. He, however, did not explain how this would curb proxy attendance.

The CM said he had directed the secretary of the school education and literacy mission department Amrendra Pratap Singh to organise bio-data of all government teachers so that these could be displayed prominently in schools.

"Pictures of teachers along with all their details must be placed prominently in schools so that students know who their mentors are. Teachers of the government schools are well paid and they should not forget their responsibility towards society," he said. Das's criticism of certain sections of teachers came on a day 40 private and government schools were felicitated for earning five-star ratings for Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2017-18 at a function organised by the state government, in association with Unicef, at Jharkhand Academic Council.

These 40 schools would now take part in a national Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar, an initiative of the Centre under Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya.

"This year, 212 schools qualified of which 23 are private schools. Of the 212 schools, 40 have finally been selected to compete at the national level. I expect a central team to visit Jharkhand in June for ground verification," he said, adding that in 2016-17 only 27 schools of the state could secure five-star ratings on the basis of the 37 parameters set by the Union government.

This year, West Singhbhum deputy commissioner received a citation from the chief minister since five of the 40 selected schools were from the district. Kasturba Gandhi Girls Residential School at Tonto secured a rating of 98.90 per cent, the highest among them. The others in the list are Kasturba Gandhi Girls School at Chaibasa Sadar (97.80 per cent), Government Middle School at Badajamda (96 per cent) and Kasturba Gandhi Girls School at Khuntpani (95.60 per cent).

Two schoolgirls, Ragini Kumari and Pinki Kumari, were also felicitated. While Ragini was recognised for refusing to visit her maternal grandparents till they built a toilet, Pinki had held her ground against her parents wishes to marry her off, saying she wanted to pursue academics.

Among the parameters on which the schools were judged included toilet provisions for boys and girls, whether teachers inculcated a habit of hand washing among students, quality of available drinking water, waste disposal systems, including disposal of sanitary pads and overall cleanliness of school.