Around 50 English teachers from government schools did not attend the training sessions organized for them at various places on January 19 and 20. DEO Dimple Madan questioned the teachers about their absence in the seminar.
Teachers teaching more than one subject for whom English was an additional subject said that they had attended the seminar for their main subject. For this reason, he said, they should not be asked to attend English seminars. “Due to the absence of English teachers, we teach only English,” said a teacher.
He alleged that these seminars were a mere ‘formality’ as they were not being conducted by experts. He said there were no subsequent inspections to check whether the quality of education had improved or whether teachers were following the methodology learned during training.
“Here the letters of SCERT and DEO are not clear. SCERT has not mentioned attending seminars for the two subjects,” said a teacher. “How do we know that we have to attend additional subject training seminars? If these were mandatory, the department or principals should have informed us earlier.
The DEO said that teachers should have attended all the seminars, adding that those who did not attend the seminars should attend the seminars as it would be their last chance.
