A fresh circular by the education department has evoked criticism from the teachers across J&K who have been asked to participate in a 15-day long “Swachhta Hi Seva” campaign to be organised by the directorate of rural sanitation in collaboration with the Pratham foundation NGO from September 15 to October 02.
The circular issued from the office of state project director (SPD) Samgra Shiksha has asked all chief education officers (CEOs) to “fully cooperate with the directorate of rural sanitation and Pratham foundation for successful conduct of all the scheduled activities during the campaign.”
Ahead of the campaign, teachers in all districts have received a daylong training. As per the official figures, 68 teachers from Srinagar district alone have attended a daylong pre-campaign training programme at DIET Srinagar. “Similarly, a good number of teachers in other districts have also attended such training programmes,” sources said.
The teachers have assailed the government decision saying “If teachers are engaged in these activities then who will teach in schools.”
As per the circular, the department has asked the CEOs to depute master trainers and resource persons for their participation in the programme. “But the authorities have not finalized the list of new resource persons at the district level due to which the teachers have been asked to participate in the campaign,” the teacher said.
As per the circular, the campaign will include cleanliness drive in five locations in each district, besides various competitions from primary to higher secondary level government schools.
“A block/district/state level painting competition shall be organized with the idea of involving the primary and the middle schools in various sanitation related activities and sensitizing school children about the subject,” reads the circular.
The other activities which will be conducted include drama, debates, segregation of waste material, cleanliness run and painting.
Greater Kashmir has already reported that department has engaged hundreds of teachers in various tasks relating to the upcoming ULB and Panchayat polls.
Director school education Kashmir (DSEK) G N Itoo however said the programmes under the campaign will be “a normal activity during morning assembly which won’t affect the normal class work”.
“It will be just 15 to 20 minutes exercise on day to day basis and there will be no disturbances in academics,” he said. However the teachers said such engagements in non-teaching assignments will keep them away from classes which will prove detrimental for students.