Punjab: In the recent Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) Class XII and X exam results, students across the state performed exceptionally well in English and Science. The average pass percentage in English was 96.12 per cent, while in Science (including Physics, Chemistry and Biology) it was 99.72 per cent (sum of all three subjects). In Class X, the overall pass percentage of students in English was 97.98 per cent and in Science was 99.06 per cent. Notably, there is a severe shortage of teachers in both subjects in the state schools. Recently, there have been reports and visuals of qualified teachers, who have cleared the Punjab State Teacher Eligibility Test, staging protests over non-recruitment of new teachers. Over the past few years, government schools in Punjab have been grappling with inadequate student-teacher ratio. Despite these challenges, the recent high pass percentages in these subjects raise questions about the situation and highlight the need to address the issue urgently. Ashwani Awasthi, a government school teacher and district unit chief of the Democratic Teachers Front, said that till 2007, the PSEB did not appoint separate English teachers. “There was no provision for appointing English teachers and social science teachers were assigned the task of teaching English. Last year, the department promoted 300 English teachers, but only a few of them had knowledge of the subject. Even today, in many schools, especially in middle and high schools, social science teachers are teaching English due to vacancies,” he said. According to data, there are 78,000 sanctioned teaching posts for senior secondary schools in government institutions, but only about 50,000 have been filled and the rest are vacant. A large number of these vacancies are for English, science and Hindi teachers. A teacher from a government school in Ajnala, on condition of anonymity, said, “In our school, four teachers take care of 500 students. The social science teacher teaches English and the science teacher also teaches mathematics.” The situation is the same in many other schools as well.’ Another teacher from the rural border area of Ajnala said that this hidden assessment system works to hide the shortage of teachers in schools. “As per PSEB guidelines, practicals in science have been abolished and internal assessment of 20 marks has been introduced based on students’ responses and class participation. Also, passing marks in theory have been reduced, as the 20 marks of internal assessment now count towards the overall passing marks. While this may encourage more participation in class, it also gives students an opportunity to bypass practical assessment and compensate for any shortfall in theory marks. Since teachers’ annual confidential reports (ACRs) are directly linked to results, many teachers are generous in giving marks to students,” the teacher added. According to various survey reports, over 40,000 teaching posts were vacant in government schools till last year. Awasthi said that no recruitment has been done for the posts of English teacher in government schools since 2020. Still, the results show that the students have overcome the shortcomings of the department academically.
Punjab: Students performed excellently despite shortage of teachers
