COIMBATORE: Primary school teachers urged the school education department to bring back the post of District Elementary Education Officer (DEEO) to supervise the primary education and administration effectively. Petitions have been submitted to the School Education Minister regarding the issue.
According to sources, there was a DEEO post in each district to monitor primary education. In May 2018, the post was abolished through government orders 101 and 108, over administrative reasons and the powers were given to the District Educational Officer (DEOs).
A primary school headmaster said under the supervision of DEEO, primary and middle schools were operating efficiently due to frequent inspections. “DEEO was able to resolve all the issues of the schools promptly as they were only monitoring the Primary and Middle schools through block educational officers (BEOs). However, DEOs, who were only focusing on the high schools till 2018, are struggling to maintain Primary school education. Also, now some of the BEOs support only private schools and are not corporating with DEOs to monitor the primary schools, she added.
All India Federation of Elementary Teachers Organisation secretary V Annamalai told TNIE, “Now, teachers are not getting their benefits on time and they are waiting for years to get a selection grade. We have given petitions to School education Minister and urge the government to cancel the orders and call back the DEEO posts.”