PM Shri school grapples with staff shortage

The Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Chabal, was given the status of Smart School eight years back and brought under the PM Shri scheme to improve quality of education and infrastructure.

Despite getting the coveted tags, the school is grappling with shortage of lecturers.

Under the state government’s ‘Sikhya Kranti’ initiative, local MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal has spoken about development works being undertaken in the school in front of villagers. However, social activist Devinder Sohal and other villagers termed it an exercise to gain political mileage.

The villagers said according to the official record for the 2024-25 academic session, the school has 93 and 130 students in Classes 12 and 11, respectively. They said of the total nine sanctioned post of lecturers for senior secondary classes, six are lying vacant. There are no lecturers to teach Punjabi, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and History to Class 12 students.

They said instead of launching programmes under ‘Sikhya Kranti’, it would be better that the public representatives come to schools with appointment letters for teachers so that the vacant posts can be filled.

The villagers added that under the PM Shri scheme, the school had been given Rs 59 lakh in two instalments, but the grant had failed to serve the purpose.

They said the department had failed to provide adequate water facility to 650 girl students. There are two water tanks with a capacity of 2,000 litres and power supply is erratic. They added that during the summer, the power supply remains suspended during recess break and the students have to suffer as no water is available. The villagers demanded that generators should be installed in the school and the water storage capacity should also be enhanced.

Punjab