Education secy meets GTA education officials

State and GTA Educational Officials

EOIC, Darjeeling, 28 November 2013: The state government has asked the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration to submit proposals aimed at upgrading the education sector and also at implementing new projects for the benefit of children of the Darjeeling hills.

State education secretary Arnab Roy and education commissioner Rajesh Sinha today met with GTA executive members at Lalkothi in Darjeeling and discussed in detail various proposals tabled for implementation.

After more than three hours of closed-door talks, Roy said the meeting with the GTA had been cordial where several subjects related to education were discussed.

“The meeting went off well and we discussed several education related issues with the executive members including the acting GTA chief executive. The GTA has placed several demands. We will give a good thought to some, while the rest will be taken up for speedy implementation,” informed the state education secretary.

Talking to the media later, Roshan Giri, GTA executive member of the education department, expressed satisfaction with the meeting.

“We had a long and thorough discussion with the state education secretary and the commissioner. We placed our demands before them to make the education sector strong and beneficial for students. We received positive responses from the government officials,” he said.

On the priority list was the demand for bringing the School Service Commission (SSC) under the GTA and for forming a Primary School Board in the hills with units in Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik. The two sides also discussed repair and renovation works to 224 primary and 20 higher secondary schools damaged by cyclone AILA.

“The state education secretary has also asked the GTA to submit proposals and estimates of the expenditure likely to be incurred for old and new projects, including the primary and higher secondary schools that were extensively damaged by the 2009 cyclone,” said Giri, adding a meeting has been slated on December 4 in Kolkata to further discuss the demand for placing the SSC under the GTA.

Also in the pipeline is the up-gradation of six junior high schools to high school levels and 17 high schools to higher secondary school levels. Plans are also afoot to establish 83 junior high schools for which work on 16 has already started. Further, the GTA is to create four circles for primary schools, each comprising 53 units. Presently, there are around 774 primary school, 54 high schools and 60 higher secondary schools functioning under the GTA.

Giri further said other demands included transferring Kurseong-based Dow Hill and Victoria schools to the GTA, empowering executive members to function as district and block level inspection officials of schools and creating additional posts of secondary teachers.

“The state government had earlier sanctioned 144 additional secondary teacher posts, but later withdrew 55 of them. We want those 55 posts to be sanctioned again,” said Giri.

Other issues taken up with the state government representatives included increasing the number of seats in the Ramakrishna Primary Training Institute and the Senior B. Ed College, introduction of distance study facilities for ad-hoc teachers of the GTA, filling up of vacant posts of assistant teachers, headmasters and non-teaching faculty in secondary and higher secondary schools and regularisation of ad-hoc volunteer and para-teachers, among others.