Ludhiana: Education takes a hit as 40 posts of principal lie vacant
Addressing the concern, Harjinder Singh, district education officer (secondary), said, “As soon as the elections are over, the department would initiate the promotions of the lecturers and soon no post of the principal would be vacant”
As 700 posts of principals are vacant in the state and 40 in Ludhiana district, heads of various schools are overburdened with the additional responsibilities, thus affecting the quality of education.
The principal of a government senior secondary school said, “We already have double shift schools and due to the lack of teaching staff, the institution has been managing with a lot of difficulty. A school head has a lot more responsibilities to fulfil in their respective institutions, and then the government expects us to manage two to three more along with ours.”
Another head of a high school said, “The government has been ignorant towards the problems faced by the teaching staff of schools. “We are not machines. They expect us to manage nearly three institutions at a time, perform election duties, tackle the ongoing registrations for the new academic session and all this while, manage classes as well,” he said.
An in-charge of a senior secondary school said, “The principal of our school retired recently and since then I am the in-charge here. I conduct classes and manage the entire school while performing the rest of my duties as a lecturer, even though this is not my responsibility, and the department expects quality education from headless institutions.”
As per another principal, even if the department recruits lecturers and master cadre teachers, it would lessen the additional burden on the school heads. “There are around 200 lecturer posts and nearly 350 master cadre posts vacant in the district, which needs to be filled as it is the need of the hour. Else, the department can at least promote lecturers with the permission of the election commission so that no institution is headless,” the principal suggested.
Addressing the concern, Harjinder Singh, district education officer (secondary), said, “As soon as the elections are over, the department would initiate the promotions of the lecturers and soon no post of the principal would be vacant.”
However, when asked about the issue concerned, Vinay Bublani, director general of secondary education, said he had no idea about the same.
