The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Want to learn humanities? Wait till teachers come

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Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Want to learn humanities? Wait till teachers come

Karthik Madhavan

Government yet to sanction teaching positions

PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

How long? The Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Uthukuli, has been running humanities stream without teachers for the last four years. –

UThUKULI: Students wanting to join humanities stream in the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School at Kaithamalai, near here, are unable to do so.

The 70-odd students who have applied await the headmaster’s nod.

As and when the students enrol in Plus-One, they, like their seniors of past four years, will study commerce, economics, accountancy, history and Tamil in the absence of regular teachers. Instead, they will put up with men and women, who the school says are teachers.

This is because the State Government has not sanctioned teaching positions in the aforementioned five subjects. In other words, the school management has gone ahead and admitted students, although the Government had not approved of the humanities stream in the school.

The school, which was upgraded in to a higher secondary institution in 2002, first admitted students in humanities in the 2003-04 academic year. “The demand, contrary to popular belief, was greater than that for science stream,” says a school source.

To tutor the students, the school management, with guidance from parent-teacher association (PTA) and financial help from students, appointed teachers. The appointment was at the school level.

Sources say the school collected around Rs. 30 a month from a student to pay the teachers, two of them, each teaching two subjects. The management says they did so because of insufficient PTA funds. This has been so for the last four years.

Such an arrangement reflected in the Plus-Two results: Failures in Plus-Two have been only from humanities. In 2005, 11 students failed.

In 2006 it was 15, in 2007 it was 27, and in 2008 it is nine. This year, 114 Plus-Two students in two sections of 57 each will write the Plus-Two examination.

The school management says this academic year it is in discussions with the PTA and parents to appoint teachers. As in the past, the students will be asked to contribute, the sources say. They justify the action saying that without the students’ contribution they would not be in a position to pay the teachers.

The move has already drawn flak. K. Kulandaisamy of Democratic Youth Federation of India says it is not right on the part of the school management to collect fee when the State Government offers free education.

He adds, not all students will be in a position to pay and this will create inequality. Mr. Kulandaisamy also questions the appointment process. Chief Education Officer P. Ramaraj says considering the students’ plight, he has deputed English and commerce teachers to the school.

The school management will take care of the other posts, he adds.

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