DIMAPUR, JUNE 2 (MExN): The Rising People’s Party (RPP) today demanded that the post of the Principal Director of the Department of School Education be “abolished” in wake of the poor performance of government schools in the recent HSLC and HSSLC examinations.
“Government schools pass percentage in HSLC 2022 was only 36.62%, down from 38.75% in 2021, and the number of “nil/zero pass” increased from 23 in 2021 to 33 schools in 2022. Also 100% pass percentage of government schools decreased from 25 in 2021 to 12 in 2022,” a press release from the RPP noted.
The RPP claimed that the post of Principal Director was “specifically created by the Cabinet to do their ‘Khushi-Khushi’ in the department by bringing in flexible and servile administrative officers. The result of this policy is as clear as daylight now.”
It further stated that “there is no point” in keeping IAS officers as Principal Director since there is also a Commissioner and Secretary in the same department who is also from the IAS cadre. “Their service can be utilized elsewhere. Why have too many power centers in a department and spoil the broth when it is ultimately the students who will suffer?” the RPP questioned.
The department, it opined, should be headed by departmental cadre officers “who have a passion for the student community, basically people who have taught the students in the initial years of their service and risen through the ranks.”
The RPP stated that the “biggest blunder is to perpetuate the cycle of bringing in ‘aaya ram gaya ram’ administrative officers to the post of Principal Director.” “It is simply amazing that the Advisor of DoSE KT Sukhalu should overlook this elementary point, it being the root cause of the government schools’ poor results,” the party said.
The RPP said that “under any circumstances heads should roll,” and questioned whether the MLA/Advisor of School Education is “competent enough to take a stand.”
It also took aim at the UDA coalition stating that they “should be thoroughly ashamed.” “Whilst it’s Ministers and MLAs are busy chasing central schemes and shuttling to and fro to Delhi, on the home front, the School Education department dished out its worst performance in 6 years,” the party said.
Terming this as “incompetence at its worst,” the RPP demanded that the Advisor of DoSE, Commissioner & Secretary of DoSE, and the outgoing Principal Director explain to the Naga people as to how the department managed such a “dubious distinction despite all the tall claims regarding implementation of teacher rationalization for better results.”
“How is it that the implementation of The Light-House (Nagaland Enhancing Classroom Teaching and Resources) project which started in April 2021 has given way to the schools worst performance in 6 years?” the RPP questioned.
