"Rationalization"
Indore Zila Sarkar’s recent intervention#1 for government schools
Excess staff? Or less students? | Through arbitrary teachers’ transfers? | Through poorly attended new schools? | Through arbitrary mergers? | Just how rational is this “rationalization? | “Rationalization”: Real objective#1? | “Rationalization”: Real objective#2?
Rationalization of staffing
The decision to rationalize staffing in government schools in Indore was taken on May 29, 1999 at a meeting of the District Planning Committee of Indore Zila Sarkar held under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister and President of the Zila Sarkar, Shri Digvijay Singh. The basis of the decision to rationalize staffing in government schools is the fact that while there are teachers in government schools there are not enough students.
Attention to this situation was drawn by Indore’s District Collector and Secretary of Indore’s Zila Sarkar, Shri Manoj Srivastava in a report submitted to Shri Digvijay Singh. According to the Collector of Indore, there are 177 schools in Indore with enrollment of less than 45, including 9 schools with 10 or less students. He gave examples of primary schools where there were 3 teachers for 9 students, 3 teachers for 6 students and 9 teachers for 24 students and of 17 middle schools with poor enrollment (Nai Duniya, May 31, 1999). Also, in an answer to a question raised in the state assembly, the state education minister said in Indore there are 32 primary and 15 middle schools with enrollment of less than 50 (Dainik Bhaskar, June 2, 1999).
While the district collector’s and the state education minister’s figures on schools with low enrollment are not consistent, poor enrollment in government schools in Indore is, indeed, a well-known problem.
A newspaper report (Nav Bharat, May 17, 1999) said that, at present, only 55550 students are enrolled in government schools in the city, as compared to 203998 in 1986. During this period the number of government schools has also decreased from 346 to 323, even as the number of private schools has increased from 434 to 6322. With declining enrollment in government schools, the teacher-student ratio has changed from 1:34 to 1:25 between 1986-99, which seems very sub-optimal compared to the 1:45 that the state administration sees as being appropriate. The Collector said that, according to this norm, there are 743 excess teachers in Indore and another 13 in rural areas. After adjusting these against the deficit in other tehsils, there will be an excess of 417 teachers.
In this context, on 29 May 1999 the Zila Sarkar took the decision to rationalize staffing in government schools to arrive at a more optimal teacher student ratio and approved a proposal for opening 146 new schools to accommodate excess teachers, including 103 new primary schools in the slums of Indore city and 20 middle schools and 17 higher secondary schools elsewhere in the district (Nai Duniya, May 30, 1999).
A month later, the state administration extrapolated the Indore exercise into a state policy to give District Planning Committees the powers to assess the relevance/need of state-run educational institutions and take decisions to merge them into other institutions, and to rationalize staffing and set up new schools where they are needed to accommodate staff found to be excess. However, the District Planning Committees are obliged to set up only full-fledged institutions, not create any new posts nor use any state funds for buildings, furniture, etc. They may make use of MP/MLA funds, central and external funding and citizens’ participation to raise resources (Dainik Bhaskar, June 26).
Shortly after that the Collector reiterated these decisions and announced that new schools were being opened and orders for transfers had been issued to teachers identified as being excess at present (SDA, July 2, 1999). At the same time another newspaper report, which was not an official press release, provided details of 32 government schools in Indore that were being closed and merged into other government schools as part of the rationalization exercise (Nav Bharat, July1, 1999).
In effect, therefore, the Collector, Shri Manoj Srivastava, has taken the following measures to implement Indore Zila Sarkar’s decision on rationalizing staffing in government schools: identifying excess teachers in existing schools, transferring excess teachers to various places, opening new schools to accommodate excess teachers, closing some existing schools and merging them into others
Will these measures meet the objective of rationalizing staffing in government schools is a matter that merits close scrutiny in the interest of effective use of scarce public resources, in the interest of the nation’s commitment to education for all and in the interest of the spirit of decentralization and good governance.
"Rationalization" of staffing