DIMAPUR, JUNE 5 (MExN): The Rising People’s Party (RPP) today stated that it is thoroughly unconvinced by the clarification issued by the Department of School Education (DoSE) regarding the poor performance of government schools.
The RPP said that it is still awaiting the response of the Advisor of DoSE/UDA Coalition to address the issue of abolition of the post of the Principal Director (PD).
Further, a press release from the party said that the department’s excuse using COVID-19 as a reason for the poor performance of government schools “takes the cake for the worst excuse of the year.”
The RPP pointed out that since 2017 the pass percentage has decreased from 42.60 percent to 36.62 percent.
“Any average person can see that the pass percentage over the years is consistently the same (slightly worse in 2022) which means the reason for the abysmal condition of our education is somewhere else,” it reasoned.
The RPP said that the number “one reason for the poor performance of government schools is the politicization of bureaucracy, which includes the PD system, the so-called attachment of teachers to VIPs/SDEOs/DEOs, proxy teaching system, etc.”
The RPP said that the post can be abolished by the State Government and it should be done so immediately.
“Once the PD post is abolished, the Director of DoSE will exercise full powers and responsibilities, and since the Director is a departmental cadre officer, the default reasoning is that he/she will give their best as they have risen through the ranks as teachers initially,” it added.
It demanded that the Advisor for the DoSE address this burning issue immediately.
The RPP meanwhile pointed out that the DoSE is a department with the highest number of government employees of more than 26000. It added “that for the PD to make the wild claim that there are no sufficient eligible officers for the posts of SDEOs and DEOs is an insult to all the employees and officers of the department.”
It further questioned the department’s policy with regard to proxy teachers and queried if it has adopted zero tolerance measures. The party also noted that there are so-called attachment of teachers to VIPs/SDEOs/DEOs “where thousands of teachers are concentrated only in district headquarters, not to speak of dual service teachers (teachers and staff appointed under DoSE whilst working in private sectors earning dual salary), excess teachers, etc., which has profoundly affected the foundation of lakhs of students.”
Meanwhile, the RPP said that if the reason for the deficit of Assistant Headmasters and Headmasters is because of the ‘court cases between different groups of teachers’ as cited by the PD, “then it only highlights the poor management of the department by the HoD, AHoD and the Advisor.”
The RPP said that because of the “politicization of the DoSE by the state government, government school students have a very weak foundation.”
