A teacher for almost 30 years in Urdu-medium municipal schools in Gujarat, Shazia Banu never felt so helpless in class.
Shazia, lalelled as a “surplus teacher” by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) school board is now on duty at a Tamil-medium municipal school in the city.
She is not the only one to face such circumstances. 33 Urdu-medium municipal teachers, all Muslims and declared “surplus”, were shifted to schools where the medium of instruction is a different language.
There was no other option due to lack of vacancies in the 59 Urdu-medium institutions among the 452 municipal schools in Ahmedabad, claimed the authority.
“Throughout my life I have studied and taught in Urdu-medium. At this point, if the authorities ask me to teach in Tamil or Marathi, how will I? Is there any sense in such adjustments?” said another Urdu-medium teacher posted at a Marathi-medium school.
L.D. Desai, Administrative Officer, AMC school board sad, “The school board cannot afford to have its teachers draw salaries (a maximum of Rs 40,000 per month) while sitting idle at home. With no vacancies in Urdu-medium schools, such an adjustment was inevitable”.
Some others have been asked to teach subjects that they have not at all done earlier. Another Urdu-medium teacher who has been transferred seven times in the last three years to Urdu, Gujarati and English -medium schools said,
“It is difficult to find an Urdu-medium teacher with a BSc qualification,” the teacher said. “With no job opportunities, no one, at least in Ahmedabad, prefers to graduate in Urdu-medium. Thus, vacancies for Maths and Science teachers in Urdu-medium schools go unfilled. That is the reason why the surplus Urdu-medium teachers have been asked to teach these subjects.”