Glaring shortfall in staff, facilities impede Puducherry govt schools’ performance

August 05, 2013 12:00 am | Updated 12:00 am IST - PUDUCHERRY

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General reveals that there is a declining trend in the enrolment in government schools and in the secondary school level, the gap in performance between the Schedule Caste students and general category students was 16 per cent.

Further, there were shortfalls in many basic amenities and in the filling of various principal and vice principal posts. Overall, government schools “suffered from inadequate infrastructure, insufficient number of teaching staff and deficient implementation of schemes meant for the benefit of students,” the report reveals.

The problems with students and the quality of education provided by government schools are revealed only in the higher secondary level, where inadequate teachers and poor teaching skills begin to show a serious effect. It is expected that there will be a serious decline in the pass percentage over the next few years, especially with the lack of staff.

New posts not created

Close to 300 new posts, with 250 in the schools and 50 in the Department, have not been created. The file has been pending with the Ministry of Human Resource Development for a while now.

For the 57 Government Higher Secondary Schools in the Union Territory, it has only 35 sanctioned principal posts.

From 2007 to 2012, 10 schools were upgraded to higher secondary schools and the 11th Five Year Plan proposed creation of 40 posts for principal, however, no new posts were created, the CAG report further said.

For the post of vice principal, 29 per cent of the 48 posts were vacant, 63 per cent of the available 73 head master posts were vacant.

In terms of lecturers, there was 9 per cent vacancy and a 28 per cent vacancy for the post of physical education lecturer and 13 per cent vacancy for physical education teachers. For the post of instructor, only 19 of the 66 posts had been filled and there was a 58 per cent vacancy for the post of conductress, according to data available with the department.

Unless these deficiencies are filled, the performance of government schools will be much poorer than the private schools, the sources said.

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