The Hindu : Front Page : Sans teachers, special schools see poor results

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Friday, Jun 20, 2008
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Sans teachers, special schools see poor results

Karthik Madhavan

PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN.

Poor show: Class Ten results of Government-run special schools have been quite bad because of absence of teachers.—

ERODE: The State Government-run special school for the speech and hearing impaired children in Salem has had a zero pass percentage for SSLC this year. All the 17 students who wrote the examination failed. None of them passed in science and Tamil, four cleared mathematics and two passed social science. The students, being differently-abled, write only four subjects.

The school has shown a similar pattern of results over the past 10 years. Enquiries reveal that this has to do with the absence of teachers. The mathematics teacher’s post has remained vacant for about a decade. So is the Tamil teacher’s. The science teacher’s post is vacant but only for six years.

If that is the fate of the Salem school, that of the one Udhagamandalam is no different. All the 10 students who wrote the examination this March have failed. All failed in social science, six in mathematics, seven in science and four in Tamil. Here again, the poor result has to do with teachers’ vacancies. The mathematics teacher’s post has remained unfilled for nearly a decade. The Tamil teacher’s position has remained unoccupied for four years.

There are six such special schools in the State and Class X results in all of them are either the same or slightly different. In the Kancheepuram school, only two of the nine students who wrote the examination cleared it. In Dharmapuri it is eight out of 20, and in Thanjavur it is four out of 20.

Though the pattern of results vary, that of teacher vacancies is almost the same. The special school teachers attribute the vacancies to the government not recruiting teachers for a long time.

P. Veeramani, member, Welfare Board for the Disabled, Government of Tamil Nadu, says the government must act fast to fill vacancies so that the differently-abled children get a good deal. He also suggests timely promotions for the existing teachers. Asked for her comments on the situation, State Minister for Social Welfare Geetha Jeevan said she would look into the issue and initiate action at the earliest to fill vacancies. She also promised to conduct motivation programmes for the teachers.

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