More than a year has passed since the resource-rich district came into existence, but many State-run schools in the predominantly tribal-populated district continue to reel under a multitude of problems, including shortage of supervisory officers and teaching staff, besides infrastructure inadequacies.
The glaring deficiencies have become a cause for concern at a time when the schools are gearing up to conduct the Summative Assessment-I exams, the crucial exercise to assess the academic skills of students.
The crucial supervisory posts at the district, division and mandal level have remained unfilled for long casting a shadow on proper monitoring of the academic and administrative matters in the government schools across the district.
The School Education Department is yet to appoint a regular District Educational Officer (DEO) and full-time Mandal Educational Officers (MEOs) in more than half of the total 23 mandals in the district, sources said.
The key DEO post has remained unfilled ever since the previous incumbent retired from the service over a month ago. The Khammam DEO is holding the additional charge as the DEO of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, the sources said. It is imperative to immediately appoint a regular DEO and fill up all the vacant supervisory and teaching posts in the district to streamline the functioning of the State-run schools, said Students Federation of India (SFI) Bhadradri-Kothagudem district president M. Satish. The government should address the infrastructure deficiencies by constructing new buildings, toilets and kitchen sheds in remote tribal areas, particularly in Charla and Dummugudem mandals, he said, demanding that top priority should be given to strengthening the school education system in the district.
