The Education department had in the previous year planned to establish call centre in Education Directorate under public private partnership mode to randomly monitor Government schools and ensure effective implementation of Government sponsored schemes including Mid-day Meal scheme.
About a year has passed, but the Education department is yet to implement this project. However, a department officer said that in consultation with the department, Uttarakhand Public Private Partnership Cell had recently drafted this project and sent it to the State Government for approval.
The officer said that reports received by the department from the residents of mountainous parts and education officers who had inspected these schools revealed that in some schools, teachers do not work regularly; short supply of food grains was hampering Mid-day Meal preparation in some schools; some schools teachers were working 10 days in a month as they had reached an understanding among themselves to work in shifts while in some places, text books sent by the Education department do not reach the school on time.
Surprise inspections revealed that in some schools, food was prepared for 100 students while only 80 students had marked their presence in the attendance register. In some schools, funds released for construction of classrooms, toilet and boundary walls were not utilised by the schools due to lack of coordination among the school management committee members.
If the call centre is established, its staff will randomly call the schools and report to the education officers about students and teachers' attendance, status of MDMS and other schemes there. This will help in ensuring quality education in the schools which will be monitored randomly and problems faced by the principals or students will be addressed by the officers concerned.
School Education Director CS Gwal said that presently, toll free number 1800-180-4132 and telephone number 0135-2781944 are operational in the Education Directorate and complaints received from the people are addressed by officials concerned.