All is not well in school education department

Chennai: The partnership of school education minister K.A. Sengottaiyan and secretary T. Udhayachandran, which was hailed even by the opposition leaders for initiating reforms in school education, is under duress.

According to sources, the senior minister and bureaucrat are not on talking terms for a few weeks now. It appears the issue of contention was transfers of the teachers and headmasters. It may have started when Mr Udhayachandran allegedly refused to transfer 300 teachers out of turn saying that many of them were not meeting the criteria.

“Unlike the former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s term, the ministers are very powerful now. Minister Sengottaiyan felt offended and sought the transfer of the secretary immediately,” sources said. He was one among the officers who were to be transferred on July 20. But, the minister has decided to postpone it based on the request of a few officials. It’s believed the decision has been put off to avoid public criticism. The episode has strained the relationship between the minister and the secretary.    

Mr Udhayachandran has played a major role in reviving the Anna Centenary Library and initiating many reforms, including the syllabus revision and abolishing the ranking system. He set clear goals for all the directorates in the department to move forward and has raised the bar for the officials.

“He was brought to the department mainly for reforming the school education to which he devoted himself. Even, the minister has acknowledged his role in public. But, the same minister did not even mention his name at the recent conference held for framing the new curriculum”, sources pointed out.

The minister also should be given the credit for giving free hand to Mr Udhayachandran. “Though he got tremendous pressure from his party men he did not interfere with the appointment of lab assistants. In fact, he openly took pride in the appointments, saying it was done in a fair manner. He also ordered the officials to conduct the general counselling in a fair manner,” sources said.
Meanwhile, the office bearers of the teacher associations said, the school education and elementary education officials had given the orders for the out of turn transfers. These transfers have clearly created a dent on the image of the minister who until now has got a clean image in the department.  “We thought the issue was settled between them after the transfers. But, it was not the case.

They are not in talking terms. There are rumours going around once in two days that the secretary would be transferred,” sources added.

“The teachers’ transfer issue had rocked the department three years ago. It has once again returned to haunt it,” one of the officials who is in the know of things told Deccan Chronicle. For the past several years the department, particularly lacked the will power to undertake any major revamp needed in school education. The government schools, particularly, the primary and middle schools, are in a need of a miracle to survive. The department is facing severe criticism as state board students performing poorly in competitive exams.  

With the advent of Neet, the academicians, educationists and the general public took notice of the recent initiatives of the department and hoped that the school education in the state would be revived. But, with the major babu-neta partnership faltering, the doubts about the revival have resurfaced.

What is the issue?

The issue between the two has started when Mr Udhayachandran has allegedly refused to give out of turn transfers for 300 teachers saying that many of them were not satisfying the criteria.