for want of teachers...students go on strike..

two days back...on 5th of Oct, students of Govt. Higher Secondary School, Anini went on strike. they saw to it that the offices and shops were closed for the day. their grievance: get them some more teachers. students have been writing board exams without senior teachers in subjects like economics for the last few years.

its a sad plight when students have to resort to such things for what actually is their right and govt's responsibility. mind you, anini is not some chota mota town: its a district headquarter, and a mla constituency. there are scores of people who go about criticising students for not studying..especially in govt schools in arunachal. but then they are not geniuses who can learn the abcd of economics or accountancy without someone guiding them through. there have been instances where teachers have left students in lurch during board exams since they have had to go to itanagar to see to it that they get transferred.

when i was in my 12th standard, we had a few off days during the early part of the academic session. there were two teachers of pol science..and both werent taking classes. one had just been transferred to dambuk and the other had come over as a replacement from changlang. the one for dambuk was hell bent on not leaving Roing. Roing, it seems, is a good town with all the facilities, compared to other places in AP. one fine day, i met the principal and told him of the situation. he laughingly told me: there are two teachers..take anyone of them.i told him that that its not a good precedent when students come requesting teachers to take classes when there are bunches hanging around.

this is not just about anini or roing. its an everyday reality in almost all govt. schools across the state.

now with our own unemployed youths, some deserving, others undeserving, being absorbed into the educational system through the SSA...its hard to predict which direction we are headed for.....hope those who have been entrusted with the responsibility of teaching really end up teaching.