AGARTALA, April 29 (TIWN): Even as India is under a constitutional obligation to provide universal and compulsory primary education for all, the main hindrance to the obligation has turned out weakening the education system of the rural Tripura due to the low attendance of the teachers and the students.

The low attendance of teachers in government primary schools are still a matter of concern. The attendance of teachers in primary schools of the rural areas of the state especially in the ADC villages has come down. As a result the education system has ruined.

Action was taken against 1.5 percent teachers out of 39,399 government schools during the inspection in schools across all districts of the state on the first month of this year, according to the officials of the school education department. “We have seen that there is a slight overstaffing in some schools in Agartala city. There is a continued process for transfer of them to ensure equitable distribution of teachers”, the official said.

He added that a series of visits in all schools at district level in December last year found several teachers absent without prior permission, delayed attendance etc. “Those found to have violated the model guidelines for teachers were served show-cause notices, payments were withheld according to merit of cases”, the official said.

However the state govt. had already issued a terse warning against private tuition by school teachers and said that any complaint lodged with the department over the issue would be strictly verified and acted upon if found true.

CCE mandated a minimum of 95 percent attendance for teachers and 85 percent for students. Rubbishing apprehensions of teachers over the new guidelines, Minister Tapan Chakroborty earlier this year said that the guidelines would be applicable for working days outside admissible leaves including casual leaves, earned leaves etc.

A source in the department said that the introduced Continuous Comprehensive Education (CCE) system had shown a significant rise in attendance figures of students in government and government aided schools of the state.