Days after the brutal attack on a nine-year-old student by teachers at a school in Camurlim-Bardez, another school was at the centre of a controversy over the transfer of its headmistress. On teacher’s day, parents and students from Government Primary School in Cumbarjua staged a protest at Azad Maidan, Panaji demanding immediate cancellation of the transfer order. The protest was later withdrawn at the behest of Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao who assured the protestors that he would take up the issue with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
The chief minister stepped in and stated that the headmistress would be reinstated, but not before condemning the act of involving students in the protest. The incident, no doubt, has left a bitter aftertaste of political interference in the schooling system.
It is reported that the headmistress was transferred because she accepted an LCD TV donated by a social worker who aspired to be a future political leader in the constituency, without informing the department. What is surprising is that she was transferred miles away without even serving a show cause notice or a proper transfer notice. Neither was she given any explanation.
The Education Department maintains that it is its prerogative to transfer teachers, and there’s no denying that. But we don’t live in a dictatorial world. The department must show some respect to the seniority of teachers and the service they put in, and at least inform the person concerned on why he or she is moved. We call this punitive because she was transferred to a Ponda school with a clause that her residence should be within a 3-km radius, virtually meaning that she has to relocate in or around Ponda.
Parents rallied around the headmistress apparently because she served her role well as the head of the school. It is learnt that she is also responsible for the revival of the school which was showing a steady decline in student enrolment in the past. Under such circumstances, the Education Department needed to summon and reprimand her for accepting the TV without prior permission.
While the political undercurrents to that action are obvious and fingers of suspicion pointed towards Cumbarjua MLA Rajesh Faldessai, the action initiated by parents using students to protest is unjustified and does not fit into scholastic discipline. The issue of transfer is between the department and the headmistress, and the teachers and parents have no role here. At best, there can be an engagement at a different level.
On teacher’s day, when the nation saluted those in this profession such incidents put a blot on a space which is considered hallowed.
The Camurlim incident has already left scars, and this one has taken an altogether different route. Teachers and parents play a pivotal role in shaping young minds. Primary students will not even know why they have been protesting and holding placards. Protests like these are setting a horrible example, dreadful in a school environment. At no cost should politics be mixed with education, and students cannot be used as pawns on political chessboards because such acts could be counter-productive to education.
The parents and teachers involved in taking the children out must understand the dividing line that separates education and politics. Such issues need to be pursued with the Education Department, not taken to the streets.
