The video showing children used as labourers by their teachers at Government School Chankhan Sopore that went viral from the U-tube channel of this newspaper on social media sites though immediately caught the attention of authorities and accused teachers were reportedly attached but attachment is no exemplary punishment to accused teachers in the eye of the people. Exemplary punishment to the accused and thorough investigation of the entire incidents is the only way to stop occurrence and re-occurrence of such intolerable actions by teachers in government schools. People reserve the right to ask that if teachers tend to extract work of labourer from the children who have to be in the classes as learners then how the same teachers can motivate people to enrol their children in Government schools. Though undeniable fact is that a group of school teachers at Government Middle School Chankhan Sopore has brought a bad name to all the government teachers’ majority of whom may be otherwise teaching their students with extra ordinary commitment and dedication. While embarking on a mission of thorough investigation in the case of the incident that has taken place at Government Middle school Chanakhan Sopore for the purposes of an exemplary punishment to the accused teachers but at the same the authorities have to take care that all government teachers don’t bear the brunt for the unpardonable inhuman actions of a very single small group of teachers of a particular government school. While non performing teachers deserve punishment without any compromise on security, safety and quality teaching in government schools, performing teachers deserve rewards but not the punishment for the good work they are doing with the spirit of commitment. Finally it comes to the accountability of teachers is government schools which unfortunately is not supervised well by the heads of Zonal and district education offices across Jammu & Kashmir. Inspecting a school is a good tool of accountability but it is not sufficient enough to bring the conduct and behaviour of all teachers within and outside the class under scanner.
Though priority for school education department is a thorough investigation into the incident that has taken place at Government Middle school Chanakhan Sopore for the purposes of an exemplary punishment but at the same time corrective measures for supervising the conduct and behaviour of the both the teachers and students at Government schools demands an urgent attention and intervention of the higher authorities to school education department for furthering the causes of making schools secure and safe places for children in future. At the end of the day parental care of children is as good a responsibility of a teacher as is the teaching in a class room.
While most of the private schools carry out a routine practice of seeking feedback about the conduct of both the teachers and as well as the children from the parents during parent teacher meetings conducted almost thrice in a year the school education department has not made any such practice mandatory in government schools for furthering the causes of accountability in government schools. What matters the most is the fact that while school education department conducts programs for training teachers in the latest skills of teaching but the department does not conduct any program for training teachers on morality, commitment , dedication and accountability in schools. Though priority for school education department is a thorough investigation into the incident that has taken place at Government Middle school Chanakhan Sopore for the purposes of an exemplary punishment but at the same time corrective measures for supervising the conduct and behaviour of the both the teachers and students at Government schools demands an urgent attention and intervention of the higher authorities to school education department for furthering the causes of making schools secure and safe places for children in future. At the end of the day parental care of children is as good a responsibility of a teacher as is the teaching in a class room.
