Himachal Pradesh government issues guidelines to make school complex system operational

SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh government on Wednesday issued guidelines to make the ‘school complex system’ operational, aimed at aligning schooling systems with the objectives of the National Educational Policy (NEP). The principals of the government senior secondary schools will be the nodal officer and all the nearby high, middle and primary schools would work under the principal, according to the guidelines issued by Secretary Education Rakesh Kanwar on Wednesday.

Himachal has achieved nearly 100 percent enrollment in the primary section and the dropout rate was negligible, Kawar said. He added that the pupil-teacher rate was excellent but there is shortage of staff in many schools and the new system would also be a beginning for rationalisation and the nodal officer would be authorised to assign teaching work to any teacher as per the need.

At present there are 14,123 government schools in the state including 9,939 primary, 1,775 middle, 960 high and 1,989 senior secondary schools, the Secretary Education said. The state has improved its ranking in the National Achievement Survey but small school size was a big problem and the school complex system would address this issue, he added.

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Day-to-day administration

"The Principal of the Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS) shall be the administrative head of the Complex for the purpose of day-to-day administration and implementation of all the policies, programmes, schemes, and campaigns in the Education Department,” the instructions said.

"All teachers, including the heads of the subordinate schools (Headmasters, in-charge of Middle Schools and others within the complex, shall work under the overall administrative control of the Principal of the GSSS,” it added.

The principal would visit each and every school of his complex at least once in two months and spend the entire day in the school to assess the learning levels of the students, teaching learning practices, the guidelines stated. The principal would oversee various works related to the school concerned and submit reports on a monthly basis and all leaves except casual leaves of the staff would be sanctioned by the principal, it said.

According to the data of the education department, at primary level 87 per cent of schools have fewer than 40 students. In standalone middle schools, only seven per cent of schools have more than 40 students. In the Senior Secondary Schools (Classes 6 to 12), 97 per cent of schools have more than 40 students, the data showed.