Education Notes

Sikkim Mishandled protest A former director of higher education, the principal of Sikkim Government College, east district superintendent of police, and a police officer were suspended for œmishandling a students™ protest in Gangtok against a hike in college fees, admits a government press release issued on August 9. The quartet was suspended on the recommendations of the one-man committee of land revenue secretary C.T. Wangdi, constituted to inquire into the students™ protest against a nearly four-fold increase in college fees which prompted police action against them on July 14. According to the Wangdi Committee™s report submitted to government on August 2, a œmanageable and justified protest by students was allowed to snowball into a œanarchic free-for-all, and lathi-charge on July 14. College students have welcomed the suspension orders served on the officials, and have thanked the state government and the committee for its œimpartial report. Uttarakhand Weekly inspection Chief secretary Subhash Kumar has issued instructions to all district magistrates to send senior officials to government primary and middle schools in their jurisdiction every week for surprise inspections, and to report whether teachers are discharging their duties properly and mid-day meals are being served regularly to children. Teachers not found in school during duty hours without any recorded evidence of their being deputed on official assignments, will be marked absent, says the chief secretary. Reports about errant teachers and mismanaged schools should be forwarded to the director general of school education for initiation of punitive action against them, adds a media release. Madhya Pradesh Absenteeism record A 46-year-old government school teacher of Madhya Pradesh has been absent from her job for a record 23 years. œOut of her total 24-year-long career, teacher Sangita Kashyap has remained absent for 23 years, Sushma Vaishya, principal of the Government Ahilya Ashram School (No.1), confirmed to mediapersons in Indore on August 5. According to Vaishya, Kashyap joined the Madhya Pradesh school education department in 1990 as a school teacher in the Dewas Government Maharani Radhabai Kanya Vidyalaya. However, she applied for ” and was granted ” unpaid leave from 1991 to 1994. In 1994, Kashyap was transferred to the Government Ahilya Ashram School (No.1), but in the same year went on œmaternity leave, and hasn™t reported for duty ever since. Similarly, another higher grade school teacher named Rachna Dube had applied for leave to œdo her doctorate (Ph D) about ten years ago, but till date she hasn™t reported for duty, said Vaishya. Subsequently, the school informed the district education officer (DEO) about it. The DEO claims his office has sent papers related to taking œdisciplinary action against both these school teachers to the office of the joint director of the Madhya Pradesh school education department. He is œinvestigating whether their salaries and increments were paid directly into their bank accounts. Odisha New KISS students Thirty-three tribal youth from the Bonda hills in Malkangiri district have been admitted into the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar, for higher education, says a KISS press statement…