Admin of TN school education dept to be overhauled

CHENNAI: To improve the school education system and effective monitoring activities, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to revamp the administration set up in the School Education Department even at the grassroots level.

At present, there are about 42,500 schools that belong to all management categories across the State in elementary education including 5,159 unaided nursery and primary institutions. A senior official from the department said: “As of now, block educational officers (BEOs) are entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring 50-100 elementary and middle schools of all managements that follow the State board syllabus. Now, they’d also have to monitor 279 Urdu minority schools across 20 districts.”

In addition to 836 BEOs at present, 15 officials will be appointed for monitoring the minority schools, he added. “They’d ensure the qualification of teachers and other issues such as the safety and security of children as envisaged under the Right of Children to Free Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE). They’ll also accord the renewal of recognition of aided primary and middle schools besides report on the closure of these schools with specific recommendations,” he explained.

To monitor performance, the district education officers will conduct an annual inspection of BEOs besides inspecting their works in primary and upper primary schools with the help of the academic resource group.

“They’ll also prepare an annual report on BEOs, which would be sent to the department headquarters for verification,” he averred.

Admissions to government schools have increased and to retain additional enrolments, a detailed proposal will be prepared for the opening of primary schools and upgradation of schools. “Similarly, a proposal will also be designed on the merger of primary schools in the public interest,” he pointed out.

Lamenting that the district educational officers were unable to spare time because of the implementation of various welfare programmes and academic visits to the government schools, the official expalined that to effectively regulate the unaided schools, a separate post of district educational officer (private school) will be created for every revenue district.

“To give impetus to secondary education and the classes that were facing board exams, the Anglo Indian Schools would be brought under the jurisdiction of the district educational officer (elementary) of the Chennai district,” he said.