Retired teachers felicitated at event in Karnataka’s Mysuru

Teachers’ Day was celebrated by the Mysuru district administration and the Department of Public Instructions here on Saturday and retired teachers were felicitated to mark the occasion.

The district-level best teachers’ award was also conferred by the authorities in recognition of the efforts of the teachers.

Vivekananda, MLC, rued the working conditions of teachers and said that no appointments have been made in schools and colleges since many years.

“Most schools have a handful of teachers,” Mr. Vivekananda said, and pointed out that there were 1.5 lakh teachers’ posts that were vacant in the State. “How can a State or a nation develop if education was not given importance?”, he asked.

The current practice is to appoint temporary teachers and pay them ₹12,000 per month as many have crossed the age limit to qualify for recruitment as they are on the verge of retirement, said Mr. Vivekananda.

Just as farmers are important to feed the nation, teachers are important to provide education, without which no development was possible, the MLC said. There are teachers who have not received any promotion despite putting 25 years of service, he added.

Tanvir Sait, MLA, who presided over the event, said that education should not be construed to mean scoring high marks, but should enable comprehensive development of the students.

Mr. Sait also called for keeping the field of education away from politics and administrative systems, and said that it should be an instrument to guide humanity and enable the holistic development of individuals.

He stated that the ideologies of the government should not be reflected in text books, and that the curriculum should be revised through committees constituted for the purpose.

Calling for more investment to the education sector, Mr. Sait said that during his tenure as the Education Minister, he had issued a notification making it mandatory to spend atleast 30% of the grants on repairing infrastructure and creating new amenities.

Headmasters and Block Education Officers were urged to place their demands before the legislators to overcome infrastructure constraints, said the MLA, noting that not many were forthcoming with the problems. As a result, many educational institutions continue to languish without basic infrastructure, he added.

C.N. Manje Gowda, MLC, said that the government has been apprised of the imperatives to fill up the vacant posts in the Education Department and it would be taken up after the implementation of the reservation.

Javare Gowda, Deputy Director of Public Instructions; K.B. Some Gowda, District Teachers’ Association President; and others were present.