Education dept curbs authority of District Inspectors

MP | 24 Sep 2018 | Kolkata: The state Education department on Monday clipped the wings of the District Inspectors (DI) of schools when it comes to teacher recruitment and directed them to inform the district magistrate and the Education department about the resolution of the managing committee, before taking any decision on the same. 

The decision was taken at a meeting with the DIs of schools across the state that was chaired by state Education minister Partha Chatterjee, secretary of School Education Manish Jain and senior officials of the department. All the DIs of the state, except Darjeeling, Siliguri and North Dinajpur, attended the meeting.

"The DIs would send the recommendation of the managing committee to the District Magistrate and to the Commissioner of School Education, before taking any decision regarding recruitment of teachers," a senior official of the Education department said. 

According to sources, the minister expressed his displeasure over the decision of shuffling of teachers at Daribhit High School in Islampur and reprimanded some DIs for taking an aggressive role in the recruitment or shuffling of teachers.

"The reshuffling of posts in Daribhit School is illegal. The DIs should consult the district magistrate and the School Education department before such reshuffling to avoid any untoward incident," the official said. 

According to sources, Daribhit High School had no vacancy. Among its 22 sanctioned posts, five are para-teachers. "It is nothing wrong on the part of any school seeking extra teachers. But suddenly some people turned vocal, alleging that teaching posts are vacant and were seen with flags of a certain party, causing violence in which two students were killed. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has directed to deal with the situation strongly," Chatterjee said.