School education: Directives issued for overall development

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, February 12: In a bid to improve the overall educatiol atmosphere in the provincialised private schools across Kamrup (Metro) district, a crucial meeting was held here on Thursday in which heads of schools and top officials of the district administration were present.

Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioner Dr M Angamuthu, who took part in the meeting along with Education Secretary Ramesh Chand Jain, District Transport Officer Gautam Das and DCP Prab Goswami, gave some directions to all provincialised private schools and asked them to implement the same in true spirit, putting a question mark on the present educatiol scerio prevalent in these institutions.

Dr Angamuthu pointed at the fact that most of the provincialised private high and higher secondary schools in the district have failed to improve their performance in the last 10 years or so. “Last year, pass percentage of 18 schools in the district was zero. The infrastructure of these schools is very poor. Even sitting arrangements in the rooms of principals of these schools are not suitable,” he said.

The deputy commissioner informed that a format mentioning amount of land the school authorities possess, number of students in the school, pass percentage, availability of drinking water and toilet facilities, problems faced by teachers working there, etc would be given to every school authorities. “The filled-in format needs to be submitted in person to the deputy commissioner who will pay a surprise visit to all these schools for inspection.”

The Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioner also warned that salaries of teachers would be stopped if he or she remains absent from work in frequent intervals, without any showcause notice. All these schools would have to implement the provisions of the Right to Education Act properly, he said. “If any of these institutions doesn’t implement the Right to Education Act properly, the head of that particular institution will be made responsible and FIR will be filed against him or her,” he added.

He instructed the authorities of all private schools, including pre-schools to upper level schools, to let the district authorities know their fee structures and on what basis the fees have been fixed, within March 31 this year.

On the school bus issue, Dr Angamuthu told the school authorities that buses which don’t have fitness certificates should not be used. “If any accidents occur due to the use of an unfit bus, the head of the school will be held responsible,” adding, “By March 31, the GPS should be installed in all schools buses in the district.”

There are presently 756 school buses in Kamrup (Metro) district and of these school buses, around 500 have fitness certificates.  Education Secretary Ramesh Chand Jain said the present education scerio in the State is not at all encouraging and the student dropout rate in the State’s schools is around 50 per cent. The student dropout rate in Kamrup (Metro) district schools is worst compared to other districts of the State, he said.

“Most of the schools often fail to submit utilisation certificates of funds given by the State government. The magements of these schools should put stress on infrastructure development, cleanliness and availability of drinking water, otherwise, the magement committees of these schools would be dissolved,” he said, adding, “If a school can’t provide proper toilet facilities, salary of the head of the institution will be stopped.”

Jain further stated that school buses can’t be parked on roads obstructing traffic movements. The schools should make their own parking arrangements, he added.