Ask a
government teacher what hinders the delivery of quality education, and pat
comes the answer, “Non-teaching assignments ordered by the local District
magistrate”. Having interacted with scores, if not hundreds of government primary
school teachers across Bihar over the years, this is their number one excuse
for not getting their jobs done: how can we teach when we are ordered out of
our classrooms to count animals?
The one
fundamental excuse that a teacher in a state- run school has for not teaching is
census and poll-related duties, and it has been around for over four decades. They say
that instead of teaching kids in the classrooms, they are forced to traverse
all over the countryside counting buffaloes, chickens, people below the poverty
line... in fact anything that the state government wants counted is on the
teachers' slates.
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| Frank Krishner at a 'Primary School' in Bodh Gaya 2010 |
The Bihar
government has finally applied its mind to the problem and come up with the
concept of a creating pool of ‘statistical volunteers’. These ‘volunteers’ will
be unemployed educated youth having a ‘mathematics and commerce background’
according to the Bihar minister for planning and development Narendra Narayan
Yadav.
One
suspects that the person behind this idea is Principal Secretary of the
department Vijay Prakash, who is well aware that having teachers go out and
count animals, trees, and humans when they should be in school has always been
a very stupid idea. Vijay Prakash has a communication style that is simple and straightforward. This plan
is in line with the Supreme Court’s directive that government school teachers
should not be sent around on non-teaching assignments.
The
teaching fraternity and educationists have pointed out that there was any
number of educated and unemployed youth hanging about the place who could be
drafted to do statistical work on a part-time basis.
These
volunteers will be known as Accredited Statistical Volunteers (ASV), and a
panel will be created for every block. Bihar has a total of 534 blocks, 8,071 Panchayats,
and about 46,000 villages. This exercise would create about 80,000 part time
jobs for educated and unemployed youth who have the requisite skills.
Shortlisted and successful candidates are to be given a proper training in data
collection and compilation, and receive an identity card. Their work will be
remuneration based. In other words, they will be paid whenever there is census
and statistical work .
This is a
welcome move. The government teachers will have one less excuse for not doing
the job of teaching. However, whether this will make a discernible impact on
teaching quality is doubtful. Quality teaching needs dedication, intellect,
compassion, and the ability to communicate well with kids. That can’t be
addressed by statistical volunteers, accredited or otherwise.
Author: Frank Krishner
