Kendrapara: Primary school teachers in this coastal district of Kendrapara will be shortly issued identity cards in an effort to stop the large-scale practice of `proxy` teaching.
The identity card scheme aims at preventing genuine teachers of government-run primary schools in this district from engaging other persons, or proxies, to do the teaching on
their behalf in their absence.
"The district administration has no other way than issue identity cards for the government teachers as the problem is spiralling out of control," Kendrapara collector Dhananjaya
Das said.
Das said the ID scheme, which would roll out tentatively by February 15, was being funded by Sarva Sikhya Abhijana (SSA) and that any teacher found indulging in the practice
would face disciplinary action.
In the first phase, about 1,880 primary schools would come under the scheme covering nearly 5,000 primary teachers. The next phase will see more teachers from upper primary
schools coming under the ID card net, Das said.
Sanatan Mallick, the district project coordinator of the SSA, said teachers officiating on deputation as block resource centre coordinators and centre resource cluster coordinators
under the SSA would also be covered by the scheme.
District inspector of school, Gobinda Chandra Pati, said that surprise checks conducted sometime back had revealed that the practice had been going on for a considerable time and complaints from parents had been pouring in regularly from many parts of the district.
Educated unemployed youths having some qualifications and expertise mostly act as proxies for the regular teachers and they disappear during the first week of every month when the
salaries are drawn and routine official inspections take place.
Once the routine checks are conducted, they are back as proxy teachers earning any amount between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500 depending on the benevolence of the employer.
"The irony is that the illegal practice goes on right under the nose of local mass education department authorities," Das said.
The practice is most pronounced, according to mass education department sources, in remote and inaccessible seaside pockets of Rajnagar and Mahakalpada Tehsils.
PTI
