Sikhya Kranti drive: Inaugural programmes burn a hole in schoolteachers’ pocket

The Sikhya Kranti drive launched by the state government on Monday proved to be a costly affair for schoolteachers here, who said they had to spend more than the amount allocated by the Education Department for the inauguration programmes.

The school management committees will be reimbursed the amount spent on the events from the allocated amount later by the government. The department had earmarked Rs 5,000 for a primary school, Rs 10,000 for a secondary one and Rs 15,000 for a senior secondary school.

However, several teachers said they ended up spending close to Rs 25,000 on the inaugural event due to its political nature. The infrastructure projects undertaken by the state government included the construction of classrooms, repair of toilets and school boundary walls, and the purchase of chairs and tables for students.

Twenty-two government schools in Amritsar hosted the inaugural event.

“We were informed about the inauguration event only two days in advance, which meant all arrangements, including tents, refreshment, drinking water, promotional placards and hoardings, had to be arranged quickly," said the teacher.

“On such short notice, the tenting alone cost Rs 10,000 while Rs 8,000-12,000 was spent on hoardings,” said the teacher. A teacher employed at a government primary school said his school spent Rs 10,000 on tenting and flowers for decoration.

‘Wasteful expenditure’

Democratic Teachers’ Front president Vikram Dev Singh termed the amount spent on the inaugural events a “wasteful expenditure”. “It’s a case of an ishtehaari sarkar (advertising government) forcing teachers to turn managers instead of teaching in classrooms. At several schools, teachers had to bear expenses of more than Rs 25,000 while some had to use school funds for these arrangements. It’s all an unnecessary intervention in academic activities of schools and a wasteful expenditure,” he said.

Punjab