Discrimination against Punjabi won’t be tolerated : SAD
Discrimination against Punjabi won’t be tolerated : SAD
Taking strong exception to the decision of the Chandigarh administration to abolish the mandatory essential qualification up to matriculation of Hindi and Punjabi for recruitment of teachers for primary schools, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has taken up the issue with chief Administrator of Union Territory (UT) and Union home minister.
In a letter to Punjab Governor and UT administrator and Union Home minister, SAD senior vice president and spokesman Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema has urged that the UT administration should immediately withdraw the contentious advertisement for recruitment of 489 posts of Junior Basic Teachers (JBT) and 103 Nursery teachers on regular basis wherein the qualification of Punjabi up to matriculation has been done away with.
Dr Chema pointed out that Punjabi is the mother tongue of overwhelming majority of people of Chandigarh and the teachers of little children have to interact with them in their mother tongue. “ It would be callous to the children and detrimental to their grooming at nursery or elementary stage if the teacher is not conversant children’s mothers language. The teacher would remain oblivious of their sentiments, aspirations and hence unable to guide and mould them”, opined Dr. Cheema.
The SAD leader said that nursery and primary teachers are expected to teach all subjects including Punjabi and Hindi and if a teacher has not even minimum qualification of matriculation, how can he impart instruction in these languages.
Besides, Dr Cheema pointed out that the advertisement is in gross violation of the letter and spirit of Punjab Re-organization Act 1966 where the recruitment were to be done in the ratio of 60 percent and 40 percent respectively. Thus, the contentious advertisement is discriminatory for both Punjab and Haryana as both Hindi and Punjabi are no more mandatory.
“Unfortunately, UT government has been progressively encroaching on turf of Punjab and framing its own rules since 1991 while till the rules of Punjab has been followed for recruitment.
Though it is stipulated that the 150 marks question paper to decide merit would has ear marked ten marks each for Hindi and Punjabi yet an aspirant can be in merit even if he is totally blank in Hindi or Punjabi, keeping inview the eligibility criteria being 40 percent ie. 60 marks.
Dr. Cheema rued that progressively Punjabi has been denied its rightful place in educational institutions in the state. Ironically, while Punjabi is permitted as a medium of instruction from class IX to class XII but no Punjabi book is available for Punjabi medium students.
-PTC News
