Tamil Nadu for common portal to solve teachers’ issues

CHENNAI: In a first of its kind, the State government is mulling to develop a common and transparent online platform for the schoolteachers and non-teaching staff to register their grievances in a bid to reduce court cases.

At present, there is no proper online mechanism for the teachers to submit their grievances. Either it has to be sent physically or through email to the officials concerned.

Accordingly, several doubts were raised by the teachers that their complaints were ignored by the authorities and they were forced to approach the court.

A senior official from the School Education Department, seeking anonymity, told DT Next that similarly, the physical registration of grievances and issues of the teachers could not be solved immediately as there is no two-way communication. “Since the physical process is getting delayed, teachers file cases in the court,” he said adding, “several cases were pending for years together.”

Claiming that there are about 10,000 cases still pending in the courts, the official said that of the total, more than 60 per cent of the cases are related to teachers versus the State with regard to pay and promotion issues besides transfers and recruitment.

“Adding to the woes, the teachers often stage protest demonstrations to fulfill their demands immediately,” he said adding, “the series of stir affects the school students with regard to their studies.”

Therefore, to solve the issues of teachers more transparently, the State government has decided to bring it online, he said, “in this regard, a comprehensive ‘Grievance Redressal Cell’ will be constituted to receive the complaints through online.”

The education department official said that the online platform would clear the doubts of the teachers, who often think that their grievances were approached lethargically by the authorities and they could trace the status of their complaints at different levels in the new system.

“The status of the complaints will be uploaded on a daily basis,” he said and added that the stages include acknowledgment, current status, details of the official, who is handling, and approximate time frame for the completion of the case will be available in the new online platform.

He said that the complainants could also file an appeal if they are not satisfied with the decision of the concerned investigation panel. “In such cases, the authorities would once again consider the genuine cases,” the official added.