Leader of the Opposition R Siva on Saturday, June 28, lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government in Puducherry, accusing it of neglecting the education sector and pushing ahead with the National Education Policy (NEP) without accounting for local needs.
In a statement, Siva criticised the deployment of a single teacher to two different schools in the same week, claiming it compromised the quality of education. He condemned the reduction of teaching staff based on student strength, terming it a violation of the one-teacher-per-class norm. He added that assigning one teacher to both LKG and UKG classes hampered early childhood learning, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
Raising concerns over the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board examination papers for Classes 10 and 12 being issued only in English and Hindi, Siva said it put immense pressure on students unfamiliar with those languages. He demanded bilingual question papers incorporating regional languages from the current academic year.
Siva also opposed the policy of failing students in Classes 5 and 8, arguing it dented self-confidence and increased dropout rates. He urged the administration to follow Tamil Nadu's model of promoting students up to Class 9 and to revert to a locally relevant state syllabus.
Highlighting infrastructural gaps, Siva pointed out the absence of functional libraries and subject-specific teachers, including instructors for yoga, fine arts, computers and sports. He flagged delays in replacing teachers on long-term leave and the late distribution of uniforms, notebooks and textbooks, describing them as major setbacks to students.
Siva demanded that teachers currently posted to clerical roles in education offices be returned to classrooms. He called for the appointment of specially trained teachers for children with disabilities and dyslexia, and the installation of incinerators in schools for adolescent girls.
On National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) admissions, Siva noted that only 14 out of 37 seats reserved for government school students under the 10 per cent quota were filled last year. He demanded the government reveal the status of the remaining 23 seats. He warned that the DMK would launch a major protest if the Education Department continued its "negligence" towards student and teacher welfare, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
