Rajasthan govt order: Principal to face action if school closes because of staff crunch

 

A principal will be held responsible if a school shuts down because of staff crunch, according to a Rajasthan secondary education department’s directive to officials.

The directive was issued after many schools were closed down in the state as vacant teachers’ posts could not be filled.

“On July 6, we received the secondary education department’s directive, which said that if a school shuts down, the institution head will be responsible for that,” said Omprakash Sharma, Barmer district education officer (secondary). “After getting the directive, we have alerted education officials in the district.”

Asked how a school principal can solve the staff crunch problem, Sharma said he was only following the directive. “As the decision has been taken at a higher level, I cannot make any comment.”

Congress district vice-president YD Joshi said, “The government is taking such steps to hide its failure (in filling up posts in schools).”

According to the directive, if a school shuts down, the principal has to inform this to the district education officer (DEO). Apart from reporting this to the secondary education department, the DEO will take action after reaching the spot or sending there an equivalent official.

DEOs were also directed to install a control room at the district headquarters to handle such cases. They were asked to identify places where such a situation can arise and direct school heads to maintain better communication with villagers to avert closures.

In Barmer district alone, 2799 posts are vacant in schools. Villagers at many places have warned that if posts are not be filled up soon, they will lock the schools.

Till now, teachers and school heads were responsible for enrollment and performance. The new responsibility has given them sleepless nights.

“It is like a dictatorial order,” an education officer said on condition of anonymity. “Till now we were responsible for enrollment, school performance and other tasks, such as election duties. In each responsibility, we were asked to perform the best.”

Officials wondered how they can handle a situation and perform well without resources. “Filling up vacant posts is government’s job. How we will be responsible for it? The government should fill up the posts to avert this problem,” an official said.

The state government had earlier closed down thousands of schools or merged them with nearby ones to sort out staff crunch, but failed to address the problem.

“BJP leaders had first misled people in the name of good governance; now after they failed to give good governance, they are demolishing democratic values,” said Joshi.