ITANAGAR, Oct 4: Arunachal East MP Ninong Ering has advocated that “revision of (central) funds to be allocated should be done in frequent intervals, such as that of a year, for the schools (in the state) to get adequate money for maintenance.”
Referring to the poor performance of students of the state, particularly in Arunachal East, Ering in a letter to Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar suggested that rationalization of teachers’ posting and transfer should be done as per the prescribed rules, based on the experience, seniority, and performance of a teacher.
“The posting of teachers should be done in a manner that each school gets the minimum required number of teachers as per student-teacher ratio,” he said.
The MP lamented that legislators often interfere in transfer of teachers, and that sometimes many teachers are transferred without sending relievers, causing shortage of teachers.
“As many as 254 schools in the state are non-functional as of now. Also, in a situation of shortage of teachers, a teacher is bound to teach more subjects, leading to decreased efficiency due to fatigue and lack of expertise in other subjects,” the MP said.
He also said that schemes such as midday meal are not implemented properly, food grains get delivered very irregularly, and there is “stagnation of funds from the state government for school maintenance.”
Emphasizing on girl education, the MP suggested initiating a better scheme to encourage the attendance of girl students in schools. “Each girl with an attendance of above 90% in a year should be awarded with a certain optimum amount of cash prize,” he said.
Ering also said teachers should be asked to use gender neutral pedagogy, pay equal, unbiased attention towards all students, “and adopt creative methods to enhance the interest of students in the learning process.”
Citing the detailed assessment of the national achievement survey, Ering said the gender-wise performance of both boys and girls in Arunachal Pradesh is less than the national average in language and mathematics.
“In districts like Tirap, Changlang, Siang, Lohit, and Lower Dibang Valley, girls have either performed equal to or better than boys. But in districts like East Siang, Longding, Anjaw, Namsai, and Upper Siang, girls have scored less than boys, which is an issue to be addressed,” the MP said, adding that, except in Siang, government-aided schools in all other districts have shown better performances than the government schools.
