Gunjan of class four is very happy with her afternoon school timings. She gets ample time to complete her homework before going to school at 12:30 pm. When she comes home at 5:30 pm, she can play without worrying about studies or homework.
Like her, Yuvraj Singh of class five likes to play with his friends in the evening after school hours and study before going to school.
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Rahul and Chahat of classes 9 and 10 go to school at 7:15 am and come back home by 12:15 pm. They are content with their early morning schedule as they can come back home and have plenty of time to revise concepts before helping their parents with household chores. All these children study at the government school in Jalandhar’s Model House. Students of the government senior secondary schools in Bhargo Camp and Gandhi Nagar Camp, Ravidas Nagar and Kabir Nagar showed a similar positive response to the double shift school timings being followed in their institutions. Many teachers have spoken positively about the double-shift system.
Chander Shekhar, who teaches English at the Government School in Ladowali, said that double-shift schools would be a boon for several urban areas schools where the strength is high as the students can be divided to be taught in two shifts.
Nishant Kumar, a government primary school teacher in Kapurthala, said that the step taken by the government is quite welcome as in several school buildings that are smaller in size, students are forced to sit in verandas or outside classrooms due to a lack of space. The double shift concept can avoid the hassle of needing to sacrifice the comfort of a classroom, especially during peak summers and winters, for studies.
But these government schools are among 85 such educational institutions following the double-shift timings. Apart from days witnessing extreme heat or cold, these schools start at 7:15 am for students from classes 6-12 and move to the second shift from 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm for pre-nursery to class 5 students.
Ludhiana has the most number of schools running in double shifts – 20; Jalandhar comes second with 15 and 10 each in Mohali and Amritsar.
On May 6, the Punjab government issued new guidelines, directing government schools with a higher student count than the available infrastructure to run in double shifts. Since the order’s release, several schools lacking facilities to accommodate their student strength are planning on making a proposal to run in double shifts as well. While some schools might use double shifts to enrol more students, others may be unable to do so due to a shortage of staff.
“We want to run double shifts in our school as lots of parents want to shift their wards from private to government schools, but a shortage of teachers stops us from doing so,” a Kapurthala district school principal said.
Some principals from Horshiarpur shared the same views and told The Indian Express that they refused admissions to several students whose parents wanted to shift them from private to government schools, saying that they just do not have the needed staff strength.
“Double shift timings provide ample time for students to complete homework and teachers to finish school-related works apart from getting time to spend on other activities,” said primary wing officiating head Pradeep Kaur of Model House school.
He said that they have sufficient staff numbers to manage both shifts.
A teacher of Bhargo Camp school suggested that the primary school be run in the afternoon shift both in summer and winter as their school has a higher number of children from labor families. Parents are happy with the timing as they get enough time in the afternoon to work at factories and houses when their wards are in school, the teacher added.
Bhargo Camp school was one of many in the state that saw a jump in student enrollment during the covid-19 pandemic after it moved to double shifts. “Even in our school, the number of students has increased over 200 during Covid,” the school’s principal, Kuljeet Kaur, said. The school has over 1,000 students in two shifts.
Jalandhar’s District Education Officer, Gurbhajan Singh Lassani, said that schools are welcome to submit proposals to shift to double shifts. He said that with this, the enrollment in the schools may also increase. “We are waiting for detailed guidelines and the decision for some schools to turn in double shifts will be taken accordingly”, he added.
Parmod Bharti, a retired government school lecturer, said that most government schools in the state have a good infrastructure but are in dire need to hire more teachers.
Kuldip Singh Daurka, General Secretary of the Government Teachers Union Punjab, said that the new AAP government’s main poll plank was education and health but nothing has been done regarding the former so far.
“There is a shortage of around 35,000 to 40,000 teachers in the schools, mainly in the primary classes where several schools have either a single teacher or appoint teachers on a temporary basis,” Daurka said.
“Without teachers, no improvement is possible,” he added.
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