COIMBATORE: The effectiveness of Samagra Shiksha, which comes under the school education department, is reduced as posts of data entry operator, accountant and Monitoring Information System (MIS) in the many block resource centres (BRCs) in the State.
According to sources, three staff each are needed for data entry, handling the monitoring information system and checking school accounts in each in BRC.
They come under the supervision of Block Resource Teacher Educators (BRTEs). A BRTE on condition of anonymity said, "Staff of data entry section and MIS gather details from schools and enter them in the EMIS portal. Accountants monitor and inspect the grants sanctioned for primary and middle schools. The data entry operator post is vacant in Sulur and Perur blocks in Coimbatore, and MIS post is vacant in all blocks in the district."
He added that BRTEs or data entry operators double up for the other roles. "Data entry operators, who get a consolidated pay of Rs 11,000 refuse to do extra work, because of which we are unable to send particulars to the State office. The government must allocate funds in the upcoming budget to recruit more staff."
Tamil Nadu Block Resource Teacher Educators Association general secretary K P Balaji told TNIE, "Apart from the vacancies, Samagra Shiksha is yet to get an office in new districts like Ranipet, Kallakurichi, etc. We have to share facilities in nearby education offices and are unable to complete the work on time."
"As per the norm, one accountant should monitor the 50 schools in a BRC. Every BRC covers 70 to 100 schools, which means one more accountant should be appointed. We took up the issue with senior officials last year, but there is no response," he added.
Senior officials of Samagra Shiksha were not available for comments despite repeated attempts.