State-wide discontentment is now brewing over the recent directives by a select number of Block Education Officers (BEOs) in the State to school authorities under their jurisdictions to ban entry of journalists inside school campuses.
The BEO of Kankadahad in Dhenkanal district has gone a step further by asking headmasters under his jurisdiction to file police complaints against journalists who make ‘unauthorised’ entry into schools. The Kankadahad block BEO’s directive came close on the heels of a visit by some journalists to the Jayapura Kateni Upper Primary School and their expose of the lapses in the teaching-learning system in the educational institution.
The school’s mathematics teacher could not answer a simple question on subtraction. The question was: What is 49 minus 12? The teacher could not spell certain English words. Some other students of the school failed to tell the names of the State’s Chief Minister and Education Minister and Father of the Nation. A few other students failed to recite multiplication tables from 2 to 4.
The reporters brought these pathetic state affairs of the school to light. They also informed this to District Education Officer Nibedita Pani, who, while admitting the lapses, said she would direct the BEO to conduct an inquiry on the teaching-learning process in the school and submit a report to her.
It was expected that the BEO, like the dynamic and daring School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash, would take into task the teachers for the unacceptable gaps in the teaching-learning process. Instead, the BEO made a complete misadventure by asking the school authorities to file a police complaint.
Will the BEO’s action serve any purpose? Will that make up for the losses the students are suffering from? Or, will it anyway help the teachers improve their teaching standard sans acquiring knowledge?
The BEO’s action is indeed a great disservice to the society. He should have immediately acted to mend the things instead of messing them up.
The BEO’s action comes as a stark contrast to Minister Samir Dash, who recently made a surprise visit to a school in Baleswar to examine the standard of teaching and learning. What he found was quite shocking and startling. The students could not recite multiplication table from 2 to 8. The Minister himself shared it on social media platforms. He also ordered for temporary suspension the headmistress’s salary payment.
In fact, the Minister just wanted to send a message to the teachers’ community in the State that such lapses cannot be accepted.
Minister Dash, known for his frank and honest opinions, has also denounced the BEO’s action. He said, “Media is a part of our system. Mediapersons are extending all cooperation to set things right in the education system. However of late, some unscrupulous persons in the guise of the media are entering the schools. We’ll have a look at the entire development.”
In a democracy, the media is recognised as the fourth pillar. Attempts at muzzling Press freedom have always given way to anarchy, corruption and nepotism.
When the Naveen Patnaik Government has created a separate Department of 5T (team work, technology, transparency, transformation and time limit) headed by dynamic IAS officer VK Pandian to ensure transparency in governance and public administration, the BEO’s action appears to be a heinous attempt to sabotage this mission.
Reports say some other BEOs have also served similar notices. Such misdemeanours must be preempted to check further damage to the reputation of the education department. The officers must know that wisdom lies in curing the cancer, not killing the patient. The messenger of peace must be greeted, not hunted out.
(The writer is a senior journalist. He is also advisor to the New Delhi-based Centre of Socio-Economic Studies)