Teachers punished for doing duty!

BHAWANIPATNA: A cluster-level coordinator of Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan (SSA) and 16 primary school teachers have been punished for attending the Sadhan and Samadhan orientation training session. This has led to resentment among the teaching fraternity as all those punished were at the training session on official direction.The Kalahandi District Project Coordinator of SSA on December 3 in a written direction instructed the block-level coordinators (BRCs) to ensure that they attend Sadhan and Samadhan orientation training on December 6, 10 and 17 at cluster points. The teachers were asked to suspend their classes on the due dates which were Saturdays. Accordingly, 16 teachers attended the training in the Medinipur cluster point.Ironically, they later learnt that their one day salary was withheld and the cluster-level coordinator, who is also a teacher, has been suspended by the DI of Schools on the allegation that on December 17 they remained unauthorisedly absent and illegally suspended their schools without providing mid-day meal to the students.However, the teachers said they fail to understand why they have been punished for attending the training as per the written instruction of the DPC, BRC and CRC. They claimed that the school was suspended only after handing over mid-day meal ingredients to the SHGs on December 17. Ironically, neither the DPC or BRC of Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan has come to the rescue of those punished, the peeved teachers alleged.