Heads not in place,education sector ‘loses’ mind

Primary education

The Department of Primary Education is among most neglected. The Directorates of Primary Education as well as Secondary and Higher Secondary Education,Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research,also known as Balbharati,Balchitravani and Department for Minority and adult education are without full-time bosses.

While most of these key offices are for the past several years being run by the state government through a makeshift arrangement by giving additional charge to senior officials,the present scenario is no different with the government roping in part-timers for these departments through a government resolution issued last year.

The Directorate of Primary Education,which has the crucial responsibility of effective implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) among other works,ironically does not have a full-time director. The director of Maharashtra State Council of Education (MSCE) has been given additional charge of the directorate of primary education since January 1.

While the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) loaded with responsibility of conducting Class X and Class XII examinations along with periodic upgrade of syllabus,its chairman is shouldering additional responsibility of the Directorate for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.

Likewise,Balbharati is being looked after as an additional charge by the Joint Director of Education (secondary and higher secondary),while Balchitravani that is responsible generation of audio-visual for educational purposes,is governed by the director of State Council of Educational Research and Training as officiating head. The Director of MSCE,H I Shinde,has been given

additional charge of minorities department

(education).

Directorate of Technical Education (DTE)

Staff crunch at the top continues to affect the overall functioning of the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE),the State-level competent authority that monitors the technical,management and allied streams of education in Maharashtra.

Ironically,for more than seven years now,DTE has not had a full-time director with the workload being handled by an officiating head,who is already loaded with other educational responsibilities.

Equally worse is the scenario at six regional offices of DTE with as many as four of them being managed by government-appointed officiating heads.

The Directorate has its six regional offices at Mumbai,Pune,Nashik,Aurangabad,Amravati and Nagpur,of which only Nagpur has regular joint directors.

Though the number of institutions coming under DTE has more than doubled in the past five-years,no recruitment of top brass has taken place in the corresponding period,posing difficulties in day-to-day working.

Department of Higher Education

The Department of Higher Education too is without a regular director. The principal of Government B.Ed College,Aurangabad has been given additional responsibility as Director of Higher Education.

Though the post of State joint director has been vacant since February,the post of joint director of Aurangabad region is due to fall vacant by end of June.

Activists call govt short-sighted

Educational activists and experts have lambasted the state government for being “lethargic” and “short-sighted” in not making regular appointments in key educational departments. “The field of education deals with the future of millions of young students in the state. The vacuum at the top in vital departments implies that education finds least priority on the government agenda. It is nothing but lethargy when government allows to run these departments without full-time heads for years,” said activist Vivek Velankar.

“No matter how many good policy decisions the government takes at its level,they will be of no use if there is such an emptiness at top in key educational departments,” he added.

Another activist Jayant Jain from the advocacy group Forum for Fairness in Education said the absence of top brass in government departments is also due to non-compliance by the government on several judicial orders,including that of the Supreme Court.

“Education being on the concurrent list of the Centre and the State,the Maharashtra government is also failing to give justice to the policy decisions and initiatives by the Union government like RTE Act,” he said.