Concern over shortage of English language teachers

Updated on: Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Several private schools in the city are experiencing shortage of qualified teachers for English language.

Authorities of some of the schools, who collect huge amount as “donation” for admission, stated that there was a serious dearth of “qualified hands” to take up the job for the salary, Rs.7,000 on an average, offered by the management.

P. Abdurahiman, Principal, Hill Top Public School, said the school had been looking for an English teacher for the last one month without success. “We are planning to give an advertisement in the media in a few days from now,” he said adding that the lack of qualified teachers to work for the said salary was forcing some schools even to appoint untrained candidates.

Beeline Public School ran with the post of an English teacher vacant for almost a month. “We managed to get a candidate last week after an intensive search,” said K.P. Shakeela, Principal.

Asked about the reason for the shortage, Ms. Shakeela said the teachers changed schools when they were offered better salary else where. According to her, most of the qualified candidates preferred the guest lecturer scheme which fetched them better remuneration and lesser responsibility. Opting to be a guest lecturer also allowed them to dictate terms. “Most of them prefer to teach only in higher classes,” she said.

Yet another public school in the city had been doing without an English teacher for the last few weeks. “We held an interview to the post today and finalised on one at last, though we are not fully sure of him,” the principal said.

Parents and students also are concerned about the situation. P. Devan, from Nallalam, said it was only when his daughter casually told him about the nonattendance of the English teacher at the school for the last one month that he came to know about the situation. “We are going to seriously take this up in the next PTA meeting,” he said.

Concern over shortage of English language teachers

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