Teachers to get salaries through Union Bank from next month, says Ashwini Bhide

In a major respite to teachers of Nagpur district, Maharashtra Government has finally decided to distribute their salaries through Union Bank of India from next month. More than 20,000 teachers will heave a sigh of relief as they will get timely salary through natinalised bank. The RBI has recently cancelled the Banking licence of Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB) and this has left Government with very little choice but to shift salary accounts of teachers to Union Bank. The decision was taken two years ago, but kept in abeyance for obvious political reasons.
School Education Secretary Ashwini Bhide was in Nagpur to review the functioning of the department before the commencement of next academic year. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting Bhide stated that decision was taken so that teachers’ should get their monthly salaries on time and in hassle-free manner. About accumulated salary amount still lying with NDCCB, Bhide made it clear that discussion in this regard was held with Co-Operative department officials and money lying with Bank would not be tampered with.
“We are in touch with Reserve Bank of India (RBI). School Education department officials are seeking permission of RBI to disburse the money lying with NDCCB. Now, we will issue the official letter in this regard. The bank will provide everything on-line including core banking system,” said Bhide.
When asked about non-reimbursement of fees to schools who admitted students under Right to Education Act (RTE), Bhide said, “Government of India has asked us to send the demand of the total amount to be paid to the schools per student. We will send the demand and accordingly after the amount is received, we will distribute it to schools.”
Government has warned schools where even less than 20 per cent seats were filled with great reluctance,  to comply with RTE norms or face the consequences. So far, Government had avoided taking any stern action against schools violating RTE since the issue was also under legal challenge before the Apex Court. Bhide made it clear that Government has warned schools to follow RTE, but desisted from initiating drastic steps. We are trying to help the schoosl by porividing facilities to accommodate more students. She claimed.
The teachers of the schools where the students with various disabilities are taking education and facing salary problem, the Education secretary stressed the need for more funding from Centre to tide over the crisis faced by such special schools. For last one year, teachers of these schools did not get the salaries. However, there is another flip side to this issue- of schools with questionable facilities offering sub-standard education and gobbling grants.
Government has identified 600 plus schools and took action against them, Bhide stated. But for schools running with proper facilities and qualified teachers, we are pursuing this matter with Central Government, she stated. Certain shortcomings have been removed and a comprehensive report has been sent to Centre and we are hopeful that central financial aid will be received very soon, she hoped.
About deteriorating quality of school education particularly those imparting state board course, Bhide said, “We all are trying to improve the quality of education and performance of schools’. Our team of officers are visiting such schools and trying to know what are the problems. Some of the schools are taking good initiatives also. In Buldhana district the Grampanchayats have decided to shut down TV between 7 and 10 pm. Further 100 villages will be going on the same path.” The quality of education will be improved by reaching out to the students, pointed Bhide.

Making offices IT-based is Bhide’s priority

Admitting the existing red-tape with education department, Ashwini Bhide, who has taken over as Secretary of School Education department, has decided to bring all processes more transparent and time-bound. Using Information Technology and objective procedures, the entire administration will be streamlined and problem areas like approval to teachers, appointment in grant-in-aid schools will be tackled on priority basis. Every city will have web portal, data collecting system.
“Department is being restructured. Starting from Mantralaya, Division offices, district offices we are revamping all. We will have complete set-up to look for quality,” added Bhide
According to her, budget of the school education department is close to Rs 30,000 crore but 99 per cent of the budgeted amount go towards payment of salary of teachers and non-teaching staff.

On-line application for SSC

Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education has already started on-line system for HSC. Now the students apparing for HSC examination can submit the applications on-line. The same on-line system will be introduced for SSC examinations on experimental basis from October 2014 examination, informed Gangadhar Mhamne, Director of State Board.
Mhamne said that equivalency had been given to the students who cleared Class X of CBSE school-based examination. When questioned about better passing percentage of CBSE students in competitive examinations, he claimed that such a data is not available and this is misconception. This year solid 13,000 students from state board appeared in JEE (Main) examination, pointed Mhamne.