Chief Minister Raman Singh on Monday directed officials that Engineering graduates should be recruited to fill the vacant posts of teachers for Mathematics and Science subjects in schools.

The Chief Minister also told the officials to open five new Divisional Offices of School Education in Chhattisgarh so as to conduct academic activities smoothly and effectively.

He was reviewing educational activities of School Education and Tribal Caste Development Department at the Mantralaya here.

Talking about the Education Quality Year observed in State, Singh directed all the officials to pay special attention to improving quality of the education imparted to students and also the teaching skills of teachers in schools, especially in primary and middle classes.

He said that unit tests should be held in all the classes every month and said that within the next two years, nearly 45,000 untrained teachers will be trained. The untrained teachers will not be entitled for promotion until they complete their training.

Singh said that under the Education Quality Year programme, special gram sabhas on ‘Education Quality’ would be organised in rural areas of the State on the occasion of Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary.

local teachers and villagers will participate in these gram sabhas to discuss level of education quality in schools of respective village. On this day, maintenance of cleanliness in village will also be discussed in gram sabhas.

Singh also emphasised on the importance of training for improving teaching skills of the teachers.

The Chief Minister said that like rationalization of teachers, rationalization of schools in the State on the basis of number of students enrolled is also important. The officials concerned were instructed to take necessary step in the direction.The Chief Minister said that the schools, where number of students enrolled is considerably low, should be affiliated to other schools so that the academic progress of children is not affected.

Singh said that Block Education Officers (BEOs) will be bestowed with powers of Additional CEO of Janpad Panchayats for conducting inspections in schools.

Salaries of teachers will be sanctioned on proposals of respective Gram Panchayats. In the meeting, School Education, Tribal Caste Development Minister Kedar Kashyap, Advisor to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh, Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Additional Chief Secretary Finance Department DS Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary Tribal Caste Development Department NK Aswal, School Education Secretary Subrat Sahu, Director, National Secondary Education Mission Rajat Kumar, Secretary, Board of Secondary Education Anil Rai and other senior officials concerned were also present.