Setia all set to go, schools rejoice

The news of Director Public Instructions Schools S K Setia8217;s transfer to his home state, Haryana, has been welcomed with relief by a majority of school principals and teachers.

The news of Director Public Instructions Schools S K Setia8217;s transfer to his home state, Haryana, has been welcomed with relief by a majority of school principals and teachers. UT Administration S F Rodrigues signed his relieving letter today.

While Setia is tightlipped on the issue, government schools are a happy lot, even if it may be only for the time

being. As per the information available, the Haryana government has asked the UT administration to send Setia back to his parent cadre, citing reasons of shortage of administrative staff. Even in the last month, the State government had requested the UT Administration to shift him to Haryana and had even proposed a panel of officers to decide on his replacement. Samawartak Singh, an HCS officer, who was tipped to join as DPI Schools was later given the post of Secretary, Municipal Corporation.

Why has his exit made teachers and principals happy?

During his tenure as DPI, Setia had kept most of the teachers and principals on tenterhooks, mainly because of the 8216;novel8217; ideas proposed every now and then. 8220;His mind was always brimming with out-of-the-box ideas, the practical implication of which was doubtful. Since he was in the seat of authority, we could not disagree with him blatantly. But we are glad that finally there will be an end to his arbitrary rule,8221; says a principal requesting anonymity.

8220;Setia had tried to bring in reforms in schools but before giving ideas, he should have kept in mind that our education system is different from that followed in the West. Providing interactive boards in all the schools when some of the schools lack even the basic infrastructure was not viable,8221; adds another principal on condition of anonymity.

In the one-year as DPI S, Setia was also at loggerheads with the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan SSA teachers. 8220;We are happy to know that he is going back to his State cadre. Setia has being detrimental to the rights of SSA teachers. From denying salaries for summer vacations to not giving maternity leave, we have been a harassed lot during his term,8221; says Arvind Rana, an SSA teacher.