The Mess Called DSE

Assam’s Directorate of Secondary Education is in the news again, and naturally for the wrong reasons. As reported prominently on the front page of this newspaper on Sunday, the Directorate (DSE), which is solely responsible for the education of several lakh secondary-level students of the state, is facing a serious crisis concerning its credibility – if at all it is left with anything called credibility – particularly over the alarming increase in the number of contempt cases. The report has said that presently 125 contempt cases are pending against the DSE in the Gauhati High Court alone. This means the DSE has refused to abide by as many as 125 directions issued by the High Court. This is out-and-out audacious behaviour of the official heading this directorate for the past five or six years, during whose tenure the number of contempt cases has increased. Any lay citizen will say that the Directorate of Secondary Education has witnessed an unprecedented administrative collapse in recent times. Hundreds of secondary-level teachers have been victimised for no fault of theirs just because of the alleged inefficiency, negligence and alleged malpractices at the highest level of the Directorate. This has not only adversely impacted the teaching community but also affected the students, the ultimate sufferers. What is also a matter of great concern, particularly in the interest of maintaining a healthy environment at the secondary education level, is that despite repeated reprimands from the judiciary, the Directorate has shown scarce interest towards taking corrective measures, which in turn has only led to a situation where these serious matters continue to drag on. These developments may contribute in a big way towards rapid erosion of public trust in government educational institutions, especially when the Chief Minister is trying to drastically improve the quality and environment of teaching in government secondary schools. It is also a matter of grave concern that allegations have surfaced against some top DSE officials of indulging in unfair practices and extracting undue benefits in the name of resolving grievances of individual teachers. There are also allegations against the present director of deliberately keeping in abeyance the regularisation of the pay scale of a large number of teachers serving in various senior secondary schools and junior colleges despite these teachers fulfilling the basic academic qualification of B Ed by keeping Dispur in the dark. What probably is required at the moment is that the Chief Minister takes a call on the happenings in the DSE and drastic action is initiated so that things are prevented from getting worse.