Minister hints at reinstating Director post in School Edu dept

Chennai: In a fresh U-turn, the School Education Department is all set to revive the post of ‘Director for School Education’ after two years. Days after the state government transferred Commissioner K Nantha Kumar from the School Education Department, Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Friday hinted that there will be a ‘Director’ soon.

“Sigy Thomas Vaidhyan, N Venkatesh and K Nantha Kumar were the Commissioners of School Education Department from 2019. The School Education Department which was running under the ‘Director’ for many decades, started functioning under the ‘Commissioner’ without ‘Director’ from May 2021. When the DMK government scrapped the post of ‘Director’, its allies and JACTO-GEO and other educationalists, teachers condemned the move and urged them to revive the post. However, after two years, the ruling government has decided to bring back the post of ‘Director’ instead of ‘Commissioner’,” sources from DPI affirmed the Minister’s words.

Welcoming the move, Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisation (Jacto-Geo) state coordinator Thiyagarajan said that the decision of bringing back the Director post will revive the department.

“The Director post is an administrative post. As the department has one IAS as Secretary, it is not needed for another IAS as Commissioner. When the post was created in the past AIADMK regime, we (Jacto-Geo) opposed it. But, when the DMK came to power in May 2021, it scrapped the Director post. The teachers, staff, association members were under mental agony for the past two years. Since, the Commissioner couldn’t understand the ground reality in the School Education Department, the government slipped in many key issues such as Teachers Transfer Counselling, EMIS portal and other welfare schemes for the students. We (Association members, teachers) could not approach the Commissioner. We (Jacto-Geo) urge the government to revive the post of Director soon,” he said.

“The issue will be taken up with Chief Minister MK Stalin and based on his directions necessary action will be taken,” Mahesh Poyyamozhi, told DT Next.

According to highly placed sources, the names of VC Rameshwara Murugan and G Arivoli are making rounds for the coveted post in the department.