HC seeks report on Punjab schools facing staff shortage, infrastructure

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday ordered the secretary, department of school education, Punjab, to submit a response to a suo motu petition on poor infrastructure in state schools.

The case was shifted to suo motu proceedings by the bench of justice NS Shekhawat in September, when it ran into two petitions opposing the order of local authorities not to remove a middle school teacher from the school in spite of the transfer order. It had subsequently been revealed that said petitioner was the only instructor in an Amritsar school. The second was by a lady primary teacher who came up in court in a case regarding a dispute regarding her deputation to a school at Ludhiana having only one teacher.

"It appears that the state as much as schools don't prioritize the education of young children and schools totally lack the basic infrastructure, class rooms, toilets and no qualified teacher/head teacher have been appointed," the court has observed while referring both the cases to the chief justice for registration of these cases as public interest litigations.

Now the court has also requested the education department reply on lines of queries issued by the single bench judge by December 15. The details sought included a roll of middle schools, wherein there are fewer than five rooms. Other such information needed from the government were of schools to which no permanent head master had been appointed, in which fewer than five teachers were appointed, and in which boys', girls', and staff toilets were not available separately. It was also instructed that details should be given regarding the schools where there were fewer than 50 students and whether any attempt was made to admit more students in such a school. The same details were sought in the matter of primary schools