The Hindu : Front Page : School department wings to be revamped

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

School department wings to be revamped

Staff Reporter

To tone up academic monitoring system

TIRUCHI: A proposal for reorganising wings of the School department to infuse more efficiency into the academic monitoring system is reportedly under consideration of the State Government.

It envisages posting of District Educational Officers as inspecting authorities of three or four geographically knit blocks in districts, and bringing the monitoring of elementary schools, matriculation schools and Anglo-Indian schools under the direct purview of Chief Educational Officers.

The District Elementary Educational Officers are likely to be re-designated as District Educational Officers.

The posting of 10 Inspectors of Matriculation Schools, along with a handful of officials in charge of Adult Education, in the DEO cadre, could be distributed among districts with a higher number of blocks.

Collective thinking

The proposal was a reflection of the collective thinking of the CEOs in the aftermath of the Kumbakonam tragedy, when the CEO of Thanjavur was prosecuted for the death of 96 children in the fire accident at a nursery school. The official had no administrative control over the nursery and elementary schools.

Under the current system, the District Elementary Educational Officers are directly answerable to the Directorate of Elementary Education.

Nevertheless, the concept of compartmentalisation of the school education system has not been successful, said a senior official. For instance, in the elementary education system, the headmaster and the immediate inspecting official, Assistant Elementary Educational Officer, are of the same cadre and hence the absence of answerability is glaring. It is impossible for a District Elementary Educational Officer to administer several hundreds of schools.

Also, the proposal facilitating better monitoring owing to the proximity factor could enhance the efficiency levels of matriculation schools, say officials. An inspector of matriculation schools, who now has control over three revenue districts, hardly finds time to visit the institutions for inspections, leave alone keeping track of their academic progress.

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