Perform or perish , schools told

Manas R Bannerjee

MALDA, Aug. 11: The Malda district inspector of schools, secondary education, has identified 31 schools as poor performers in the field of education, on the basis of the school’s Madhyamik results. Concerned authorities have been asked by the DI to prepare an action taken report (ATR) on the bad performance of students in these 31 schools. The authorities informed that the salary of the teachers would remain suspended until the submission of the ATR. Mr Tapan Basu, the Malda DI, said: “Following the government’s order, we decided to take up these measures. We are planning to extend all assistance to these 31 schools identified as poor academic performers to help them improve their institutions”.Mr Basu said that the state government has instructed that these 31 schools will have to show minimum 41 per cent pass out percentage in the Madhyamik examination. He further said that notices would be circulated to authorities of all government-aided schools asking them to mention important information about their schools. The school authorities have been especially asked to inform in the report about teachers providing private tuition, position of the service books for each teachers, position of papers for pension schemes and other details. “We are planning to update all papers related to the teachers’ pension by 2007,” the DI said.He also mentioned that the school authorities are directed to make pension papers ready at least 18 months before the teachers’ retirement, but often they failed to carry out the government’s instructions. “Some school authorities intentionally do not submit pension papers on time, but when we object to such anomalies, they go to the Court directly. It is a peculiar feature among teachers of this district. So, we have taken these steps,” the DI added. SNS