Quality education:CAG concern over absence of perspective plan

: CAG has expressed concern over absence of a perspective plan as envisaged in the 11th Five Year plan (2007-12) to formulate long-term strategies to deliver quality education in the Puducherry.
The report said government had envisaged that the plan would be prepared and implemented by Directorate of School Education to identify requirements of buildings, furniture and teachers for all schools for five years. However no such plan had been prepared, the Comptroller and Auditor General report for the the year ended March 31, 2012 said.
"In the absence of the perspective plan, long-term strategies fixing milestone and time frame to accomplish the goals of the department were not formulated," it said.

The report was submitted to the Assembly recently by Chief Minister N Rangasamy.
Puducherry government spends about Rs 300 crore annually on education to students.The audit findings that resulted from the Chief Controlling Officer-based audit of the Directorate of school education found absence of perspective plan.
On amenities in schools,it said delay in release of funds had led to non acquisition of land to construct classrooms and provide playgrounds.Failure to ensure availability of land and feasibility of extending existing buildings resulted in non- availing of loan sanctioned by NABARD.

Enrollment in government schools showed a declining trend and schools were lagging far behind private schools in respect of pass percentage of students at the

secondary and higher secondary level examinations.
The report pointed out that government schools suffered from inadequate infrastructure,insufficient number of teaching staff and deficient implementation of students' schemes.
The Audit noted that DSE's proposal to convert the State Training Centre into State Council for Education, Research and Training in 2005 was lost and that no follow up action was taken up thereafter.
SCERT is intended to suggest educational policies, implement training programmes for teachers, encourage them to undertake research oriented innovative projects and strengthen monitoring and evaluation system to provide quality education.
Though the directorate stated in Nov 2012 that a plan to set up SCERT would be sent to government,it had not done so for seven years, resulting in intended objectives.

The report also said large-scale absenteeism was noticed in teachers nominated for training programme conducted by the Regional Institute of English in Bangalore.