Port Blair, July 14: The reported decline in the quality of elementary Education in the Govt. Schools over the last many years has forced the veteran Educationists to get involved in the Brainstorming sessions and the main reason which got surfaced is the lack of effective monitoring system. The Principal holding the charge of drawing and disbursement officer of a Senior Secondary School, do not get enough time to visit attached feeder schools. Sources say that the DDOs are overburdened with the office works and hardly get time to see the Educational activities going on in their attached primary and middle Schools.
This neglect by the DDOs has been the main reason for the sorry state of the quality of Education at the elementary level in the Islands.
Moreover the post of Assistant Education Officer has been vanishing fast, over the years. In the absence of the AEO, the sole responsibility of monitoring has been delegated to the DEO and CRC Principal. Now the Educationists feel the need of appointing Assistant Education Officers in each zone, who will shoulder the responsibility of monitoring the primary and middle schools. If required the senior most headmasters can be given this tasks too.
The aim of the launch of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan by the then HRD Minister Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi during the last regime of NDA was to strengthen the elementary Education by providing the necessary support to the students to come to schools. It was a revolutionary step. In these Islands too the UT mission of the SSA had started following the provisions under the scheme, but the academic side was sidelined. Many Senior Secondary Schools of the Islands have been designated as Cluster Resource Centres.
These CRCs were brought under the control of Deputy Education Officers of each zone. The DEOs were given name as Block Resource Centre. But the DEOs have been failing miserably to discharge their duties for the academic works, instead they are busy with clerical kind of tasks. The time has come to do introspection by the top officers of the Directorate of Education and take corrective measures, else it would be too late, the veteran Educationists say.
