Hyderabad, July 28: It is little wonder that education standards at lower levels have fallen. About 900 out of the total 1,100 mandal education officer (MEO) posts are lying vacant for the last several years. The reason? A tussle between government teachers and panchayat raj teachers over promotions.
Due to this, administration at the ground level has gone haywire. Several teachers’ unions met the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Damodar Raja Narasimha, and panchayat raj minister, Mr Jana Reddy, on Wednesday and asked them to look into the issue and fill up these posts immediately. “Lack of MEOs for the past several years has been adversely affecting the functioning of schools at ground level. MEOs play a crucial role. They approve new schools and ensure schools function efficiently by making periodic inspections. However, with no MEOs in over 80 per cent of the mandals, the administration has gone haywire. There has been a mushrooming of unrecognised schools due to lack of monitoring at ground level,” said Mr P. Sudhakar Reddy, former MLC and teacher, who submitted a representation to the government.
While zilla parishad schools in rural areas come under the panchayat raj department, government schools in urban areas come under the school education department. Headmasters of schools are usually promoted as MEOs based on their seniority. However, the government has kept the promotions on hold for five years citing lack of ‘uniform service rules’ for zilla parishad teachers and government teachers in urban areas. The government teachers argue that they should be given preference during promotions while the zilla parishad teachers’ contention is that the government should promote teachers by taking ‘management of the schools’ as the criterion on the basis of who is managing the school.