Education Department employees and teachers in six districts of Kalyana Karnataka region have written a letter to Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar expressing discontent over the transfer of Kalaburagi Division Additional Commissioner of Public Instructions Nalin Atul.
In the letter, the teachers urged the State government to revoke the untimely transfer of Mr. Atul. Terming it as premature transfer, the teachers said that the officer took charge in October 2019, and as per the rules framed by the Civil Services Board, an IAS officer will serve a minimum of two years in each posting.
“Mr. Atul has chalked out various programmes to improve the quality of education and SSLC results in the backward region. If the government keeps shifting such determined officers, there will be no continuity in the manner programmes are being implemented,” they added.
Meanwhile, Block Education Officers, staff and teachers of Public Instructions Kalaburagi Division took to social media to express their displeasure over the sudden transfer of the officer. Mr. Atul has been transferred before the completion of his tenure in office and posted until further orders as Deputy Secretary of Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board.
Despite COVID-19 hurdles, Mr. Atul roped in senior officials in the department, including the Director, Joint Director, Deputy Directors, Career Technical Education and District Institutes of Education and Training staff in the region, and chalked out various programmes to help keep academic activities on track.
The Education Department in coordination with the District Institutes of Education and Training and Career Technical Education has organised various programmes for tuning pedagogy.
During COVID-19-induced lockdown, online training programmes were conducted by 922 resource experts for 9,067 Nali-Kali teachers. And, 243 teachers at Nali-Kali Urdu centres in 34 blocks in the region were trained online ans 1,044 headmistress of government high schools, 27,160 headmasters of higher primary school were also given training to upgrade their teaching skills.
As many as 6,860 primary school teachers, 62,000 higher primary school teachers, including 9,934 subject teachers (English, Mathematics and Social Science) and 9,152 (Kannada, Science and Hindi) teachers have benefited from the training programmes.
A non-profit organisation, Association of People with Disability, had conducted training programmes for teachers working in institutions meant for physically challenged students.
Meanwhile, Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board (KKRDB) sanctioned ₹ 10.62 crore for educational programmes in the region.
And, Mr. Atul played a vital role in the allocation of adequate funds for improving the quality of education in government institutions in the region.
The KKRDB sanctioned the amount to, among others, convert derelict classrooms into sophisticated smart classes, provide green boards and computer laboratories, conduct intensive care learning programmes in 521 government schools, and to hold free coaching classes for those who have completed D.Ed and B.Ed to take Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and to spread awareness about the importance of education in rural areas to arrest drop-out rate in the six districts of Kalyana Karnataka region.