Bihar government asks officials to hold meetings with all school heads daily

PATNA: The Bihar government has asked several district education officers to take its instruction "seriously" and hold virtual meetings with all school principals daily to improve the quality of education in the state. The direction comes after the state education department found that such meetings were not held with all government-run schools daily.

In a missive, state Education Department Additional Chief Secretary K K Pathak pointed out that the number of virtual meetings stood between 65,000 and 70,000, though there were 75,309 government schools across Bihar.

“The department has been analyzing the consolidated reports of the compliance of its order pertaining to holding video conferences (VCs) of all schools on a regular basis. It has been found that the department is receiving details of VCs being organised at 65,000 schools on a daily basis," he said in the letter.

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In just one day, the department received details of virtual meetings of 70,000 schools from the DEOs concerned, he said. "There are a total of 75,309 government schools in the state. The DEOs, who are not holding VCs of the remaining schools, must take the department's order seriously…and should ensure that VCs of all 75,309 schools (Principals) are organised on a daily basis and the department should be updated accordingly," the additional chief secretary said. The letter is in the possession of PTI.

Despite repeated attempts, Bihar Education Minister Chandra Shekhar could not be reached for his comments. The education department had, in July, sent a letter to all district magistrates to hold meetings with school principals in the evening.

"In a bid to improve 'quality of classroom transaction', all DEOs in the state have been directed to hold virtual meetings of principals of their respective areas of jurisdiction in the evening (at 4 pm) on a daily basis," the earlier letter said. The department had also asked district administrations to discuss what steps being taken to improve the quality of education, extracurricular activities for students and other measures by principals in their respective schools.