Won’t tolerate corruption in Uttarakhand education dept: Arvind Pandey
The minister says nearly 70% government teachers are adhering to dress code and he has ordered that schools whose monthly biometric attendance report will not reach the headquarters, salary of teachers working there won’t be given
dehradun Updated: Mar 08, 2018 21:47 IST
Hindustan Times
What have you done to check corruption in the education department?
When I assumed charge of the department, I realised that every corner is ailing with corruption. That’s why it is said the school education department is the most corrupt. It was reported that through interviews in the department engagement of teachers with lower educational qualification was done. We realised that these teachers were given good percentage during the interview despite low aggregate marks. So, I cut down the interview marks from 25% to 5%. We won’t tolerate corruption.
Is that the same objective of centralised kitchens?
Absolutely. Teachers were responsible and no one knew what they were serving, whether raw products are of expiry date or whether they are preparing a nutritious meal or not. So, we started centralised kitchen to free the teachers from this burden and also ensure healthy food for kids in Mid Day Meal.
Dress code, biometric attendance failed drastically. What do you think?
Nearly 70% government teachers are adhering to dress code. I have ordered that schools whose monthly biometric attendance report will not reach the headquarters, the salary of the teachers working there won’t be given.
You are working to crack a whip on private schools, too?
In the first attempt, we managed to get the approval of NCERT and are publishing its books here. These books are mandatory for government and CBSE-affiliated schools but soon we will mandate these books in ICSE schools. I want to break the nexus of private publishers because of which parents are suffering.
When are you likely to come up with Fee Act for private schools?
Within next week, we will be ready with a draft and this year, I am going to implement it to ensure transparency in the system.
Do you think there’s a good percentage of teachers working with government schools on forged certificates?
That’s the reason why I constituted SIT. The investigation takes time and within a span of less than a year, the team has worked very hard. I won’t spare even a single teacher drawing government’s salary on forged certificate or degree.
