Uttarakhand school education minister’s latest directive to teachers again misfires

Uttarakhand School Education Minister Arvind Pandey, who has been courting controversies, has again issued a controversial order.  The teachers, particularly female teachers, have opposed the latest order of the minister.

Arvind Pandey had issued a directive on September 17 to all the government as well as private schools in the state to paste profile details of the teachers on the notice boards of the schools including their photos and mobile telephone numbers. The schools were asked to comply with the directions by September 27. However, his directions have met with opposition once again.

Principals’ Progressive School’s Association, a body of principals of 38 schools of Dehradun and nearby areas, has expressed their reservations on the order.

Prem Kashyap, president of the association, said that female teachers, particularly unmarried teachers, are apprehensive about putting up their photos and mobile telephone numbers on notice boards. He said that the female teachers fear that making their mobile telephone numbers public would make them vulnerable to harassment and unnecessary humiliation from anti-social elements. Kashyap said that since the schools are regularly holding parents-teachers meetings, there was no need for such details. The minister had probably issued these directions for more transparency and better interaction of students, parents and teachers. But the teachers consider this as an issue related to their privacy.

Interestingly, a fortnight ago, the minister had to cut a sorry figure when he was seen asking absurd questions to a female teacher during a surprise visit to a school near Dehradun. The government school teachers are having a feud with the minister on the issue of dress code being imposed by the minister on them. The minister had ordered that government school teachers should wear uniforms from September 5 but a majority of the teachers decided to ignore the diktat.