BENGALURU: A whopping 49 per cent of Karnataka’s government schools function without a headmaster. This translates to more than 23,600 schools at the primary and high school level.
The HRD ministry’s ShaGun Portal (state-fed indicators) for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 revealed that the percentage of schools with headmasters and principals hovered around 51 percent in the two years assessed.
A report by School Education Quality Index, developed by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), made this public. The picture gets grimmer as 3,315 schools are running with just a single teacher.
“Headmasters/headmistresses play an important role in governance of schools — payment of salaries, administration, taking up classes, while also being key players in implementing technology in education,” said a former government schoolteacher.
However, recruitment of headmasters was frozen in 2012, said a source in the education department, pointing this out as a major reason for the dismal representation.
A former principal told TNIE that KPSC appointments, the direct method of being recruited as a principal, is laborious and time-consuming. This, perhaps, has put the administration off from the recruitment process. “Between the exam results and appointment orders by the government, is a process of document verification, which till date was done manually. Tahsildars have to go to the applicants’ house and then give a report to the government about the veracity of the documents. Certificates to avail of various quotas are also checked,” said the government school head.
DigiLocker, too, has its limitation here and cannot be used for document verification. “This, as SSLC marks cards are only uploaded by the SSLC department from the 2014 batch, and universities are yet to follow suit,” the head added.
A top official from the department, on condition of anonymity, told TNIE that promoting teachers to the post of principal has been replacing direct appointments. “This phase-wise process takes time. Promotions are under way for Belgaum, Gulbarga, Bengaluru and Mysuru,” the official added.