October 24th 2023.
The Uttar Pradesh government has made a move to combat absenteeism from schools in the state. Around 9,000 government primary teachers have been issued notices after an inspection drive carried out by the district and block level task force in September and October revealed them to be skipping school. As a result, deductions have been made in their salaries and show cause notices have been issued.
The inspection drive was carried out to ensure regular attendance of both students and teachers, and to assess learning outcomes as well as to ensure the saturation of basic facilities provided under 'Operation Kayakalp'. Five districts - Azamgarh, Ballia, Gonda, Siddharth Nagar and Hardoi - have the highest number of absentee teachers with over 250 teachers missing schools regularly.
A senior official has commented on the situation saying that such absenteeism is unacceptable, especially as the government is trying to focus on academics and help UP attain foundational literacy and numeracy under the NIPUN Bharat mission. The director general of school education has also expressed his discontent with the teachers' protests and the inspection drive has been implemented to initiate disciplinary action against the defaulters.
The continuous inspections have been carried out in over 30,000 schools across 75 districts. On average, the task force visits 40 schools in each district per month and covers even the schools located in the interiors. It is hoped that the measures taken by the Uttar Pradesh government will help in reducing absenteeism from schools in the state.
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