Quite disappointing
‘There is no future for our children’: In Jharkhand’s Manika, parents urge CM Hemant Soren to end teacher shortage
“How would you feel if your own children were forced to study in a single-teacher school where there is no learning activity?”. “Even at the end of Class 5, many children in Manika are unable to read and write”. “There is no future for our children unless they get a chance to learn”.
These were some of the questions and issues raised by parents of hundreds of students from Manika block in Jharkhand in a letter to Chief Minister Hemant Soren on the condition of single-teacher schools. These parents also protested outside the Manika Block Office on Friday as almost half of all government primary schools in the block have only one teacher, leading to deteriorating education standards.
In the letter, which has more than 250 signatures, the parents appealed: “…We appeal to you to put an end to the rampant shortage of teachers in Jharkhand’s primary and middle schools. How would you feel if your own children were forced to study in a single-teacher school where there is no learning activity most of the time? This is the situation we face in Manika, where almost half of all government primary schools have a single teacher.”
Shortage of school teachers is a persistent problem across Jharkhand. Almost one-third of all government primary schools have a single teacher, according to Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data.
“Even at the end of Class 5, many children in Manika are unable to read and write,” the parents said in their letter, adding, “When they grow up, they will join the ranks of casual labourers who are forced to work in brick kilns or stone mines for want of school education. There is no future for our children unless they get a chance to learn.”
One of the parents, Dhaneshwar Singh from Jamuna village, said, “…The government is making fools of us; unless we come together we will not be able to change the situation.”
To name a few schools, the parents added that the primary school at Ravidas Tola in Kope gram panchayat of Manika has 125 students, mostly from Schedule Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities, and has only one teacher. The upgraded middle school in Jamuna village of Manika, a tribal community-dominated village, has 120 students from Classes 1-8. The primary school in Dumbi village of Manika, which has about 70 students who belong to SC and ST communities, also has one teacher and post-Covid-19, a learning test conducted by civil society members had revealed that 30 out of 36 students were unable to read a “single word”.
Abhishek Angad – 2023-09-30 10:50