The Uttarakhand education department, better known for failing to keep a check on absconding teachers, has now turned to technology to monitor the activities of its thousands of employees.
The department has formed WhatsApp groups in which all the department officials are members; top departmental officials are getting latest inputs and are sharing information on these official groups.
It is learnt that the department has constituted two groups; in the ‘Elementary education group’ department officers concerned with primary education are associated while in ‘Feed back education group’ all the senior officers including the Director General (DG) School education are linked.
The Chief Education officers (CEOs), District Education Officers (DEOs), Block Education Officers (BEOs) of all the districts are part of the WhatApp groups. The education director and other senior officers of education director are also members of these groups.
The Primary education director Seema Jaunsari told The Pioneer that by adopting latest technology, the micro-level tracking of the activities of the schools located in all parts of the State is being done. “The department officials are in constant touch with one another as pictures of school activities, tours and other programmes are being uploaded regularly. The important decisions and department orders are also circulated in these groups,” she claimed.
Department officials claimed that these groups proved their worth during the enrollment campaign
‘Jan Jan ka Prayas, Shiksha ka Vikaas held on April 6, when minute by minute update of enrollments in schools was available.
It is learnt that the education department could undertake more such social-media and technology based endeavors like facebook pages and internal social-media groups to keep a close watch on the ground level activities in schools in the near future.