Seeking career progression on a par with Revenue Department staff, ministerial employees in all wings of Education Department have called for rectification of shortcomings in the procedures of appointments and promotions.
At its State-level meeting here on Saturday, the Tamil Nadu Education Department Administrative Officers' Association, by adopting several resolutions, emphasised on early fulfilment of their demands for ensuring the smooth functioning of the department.
Pointing out that the role of night watchmen is felt more during vacation for safeguarding costly materials and important documents, the association wanted the government to obliterate the post from the provision for summer vacation.
The ban on appointing watchmen, sweepers, gardeners as office assistants must be lifted.
And the ban on appointing employees on compassionate grounds must be lifted to fill the high number of ‘office assistant' vacancies.
Despite performing a variety of jobs, promotion opportunities for record clerks in schools were limited. Hence, their cadre must be up-graded to the level of Junior Assistant, the association stressed.
To pave way for Education Department officials in the cadres of CEO, DEO and DEEO to concentrate more on academic matters, there must be power devolution to personal assistants for administrative activities including power for financial sanctions.
The Government has to sanction the post of Accounts Officer in the offices of the Education Department officials and post adequate number of staff so that audit of schools could be carried out regularly.
The Association reminded the Government of its responsibility to post an Assistant for each higher secondary school as promised through its 1985 Order. There were 2,000 vacancies to the post of Assistants and 400 to that of Superintendents.
At the minimum, a Junior Assistant post must be added in every Higher Secondary School.
The participants took exception to the government move to prune administrative staff strength in the offices of the CEO, DEO, and DEEO. It was not scientific, and consideration has not been given for the rising extent of work.
The order must be withdrawn and a detailed report must be prepared on the requirement of administrative staff at all levels, they emphasised, at the meeting addressed by the Association State President, M.V. Balraj, State General Secretary A.S. Rajendra Prasad and other functionaries.
The association felt that a separate wing to look after duties pertaining to government examinations must be created in the offices of CEO and DEO.
For each office of the Assistant Elementary Educational Officer, an administrative officer, a superintendent, an assistant, a junior assistant, a record clerk, a typist, a watchman, and a sweeper must be posted.
The Government has to give full effect to its 1992 order for creation of the posts of Joint Director Deputy Director and Assistant Director for Ministerial Staff.
These posts have not been created only in the Education Department.
For the purposes of promotion and transfer, non-teaching staff must in all wings of Education Department must be considered as a single bloc, the association said, and wanted creation of the post of Bursar in all District Institutes of Education and Training.
