Madras HC slams teachers for private tuitions – Times of India

MADURAI: Government teachers running tuition centres or taking private tuition, engaged in private business or part-time employment beware. The Madras high court has ordered the principal secretary of the education department to form district-level teams to take action against such teachers, as these activities amount to misconduct.
Justice S M Subramaniam, blaming the deterioration of the education system in Tamil Nadu on teachers and teachers’ associations, directed the government to provide telephone numbers to enable parents, students and the public to provide information on irregularities and misconduct by teachers, inside and outside the schools.
Such numbers must be legibly displayed in all education department offices and government and aided schools in the state, the court said.
The judge further directed the principal secretary to collect information, complaints, materials regarding activities of the recognized / registered teachers’ associations in the state to ensure that they are functioning according to the statutes and rules in force. If any illegality or irregularity is identified, all appropriate actions are to be initiated against all such associations and their office bearers. “In many countries, the government schools are considered as the best educational institutions.
However, even after spending huge funds for the development of the government institutions in Tamil Nadu, we are unable to create a competitive atmosphere in government schools on par with the private institutions. This situation must be changed,” observed Justice Subramaniam. The government is allocating a considerable amount of funds for the improvement of government schools across the state and is paying a decent salary to the teachers. Unfortunately, the students in government schools are not coming out with an expected level of standard on par with the private schools.
The judge observed that teachers are largely indulging in the practice of taking private tuition classes, doing business or part-time employment etc. This is because they get more holidays and a considerable amount of free time.
The working days and hours of the educational institutions are far less than that of the working hours and working days of other government departments. In the event of allowing such misconducts, undoubtedly, the government cannot expect better performance of the duties and devotion to duty from the teachers. Justice Subramaniam observed that the activities of these associations are to be monitored by the government.
The court passed the directions and made the observations while rejecting the plea moved by K Radha, a secondary grade teacher in the panchayat union middle school at Eachangudi at Papanasam union in Thanjavur district, seeking a direction to consider her transfer to a school which is within 30km radius from the school where her husband is working in Thanjavur town, under the spouse category as per GO passed by the school education department in 2021.