The Hindu : Kerala News : Education Department staff to boycott Plus Two work

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 10, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Education Department staff to boycott Plus Two work

By Our Staff Reporter

KANNUR, APRIL 9. The Kerala Education Department Ministerial Staff Union (KEDMSU) will abstain from doing the administrative work relating to Plus Two course from next academic year in protest against the Government's apathy towards its demand for recruitment of adequate staff for handling excess work after the launch of the higher secondary system.

Speaking at a press conference here today, the union State president, R. Sudhakaran Nair, and the general secretary, T. N. Balan, said that all the ministerial work of the Plus Two course, which was introduced in 35 schools in 1990 and now extended to 1,565 schools in the State, were being handled by the staff in schools, District Education Office (DEO) and the Deputy Director of Education (DDE) office. The ministerial staff in the Education Department had so far shouldered this additional work on the basis of a Government order hoping that the staff would be provided deserving benefits, they said.

Confusion

The Government, which created nearly 10,000 teaching posts for the Plus Two course, had not created a single non-teaching staff post, they said. While a vocational higher secondary school with a student strength of 80 to100 was having a clerk and an attender, the administrative work of a higher secondary school with a student strength of 200 to 300 were being done by the Education Department staff, they said. The DEO and DDE offices also had no special staff for Plus Two course, he added.

Mr. Nair and Mr. Balan said that the ministerial staff in schools were also undergoing confusion as to the authority of principals and headmasters in schools. The Government's move to set up regional offices for the Plus Two course in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode cold-shouldering the union's demand for additional staff was a betrayal, they said.

Union demand

The union leaders also demanded amendment to special rules to end discrimination against the ministerial staff by allowing them to get promoted as staff in the Plus Two course. The ministerial staff were being denied the right to opt for Plus Two work now being enjoyed by the teaching staff, they said.

The union State conference being held here on May 21 and 22 would chalk out the course of action to be taken to protest against the Government's indifference to the Education Department staff.

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