While most of the other districts in the region have full-fledged building infrastructure to house all wings of School Education department at a common location, an integrated educational complex continues to be elusive in Tiruchi.
The Office of the Chief Educational Officer continues to function out of the old buildings of Syed Murtuza Government School at Marakkadai, and the Office of the District Educational Officer is housed in a building in the old Collectorate complex. The office of the District Elementary Educational Office has, for long, been functioning in a rented building near Sethuraman Pillai Colony.
According to teachers, the location of the offices of DEO and CEO at a common location would help them save time substantially, on the administrative front. The initiative taken a few years back by the Revenue and Education departments to establish such a complex at Vannanthurai in Ariyamangalam to house offices of the Chief Educational Officer, District Educational Officer and District Elementary Educational Officer has reportedly been abandoned, sources said. The complex in the identified area of 75 cents was also planned as the administrative centre for sports, NSS, NCC, Indian Red Cross, Scouts and Guides activities in schools throughout the revenue district, with abundant parking and canteen facilities.
The proposal fell through for reasons unknown. Subsequently, there was a plan to construct the office of CEO adjacent to the Teachers’ Home at Cantonment area where the office of the District Employment Office now stands. The second plan also failed to take off as the Revenue Department was constrained to sanction the land for the Department of Employment and Training that had been functioning out of a rented building at Mannarpuram, since Tiruverumbur town where the land was allotted was considered distant, the sources said.
According to teachers, the shifting of the CEO office from Marakkadai to the old Collectorate complex would be ideal. There was immense scope to shift the office of the DEEO as well, and make the Old Collectorate Complex a one-stop point for all education related facilities, including the project offices of the Centrally-sponsored Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Rastriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan.
However, Chief Educational Officer M. Ramakrishnan said the need for an integrated complex has not arisen in the district.
