Collector pulls up MEO over teachers’ absence in schools

Eluru: West Godavari District Collector K Bhaskar vented his ire over the absence of teachers in government schools in the district. Reviewing the progress in the field of education with officials at the Collectorate here on Thursday, he pointed out that 25 per cent of the teachers were not attending schools in the district. Out of total 12,970 teachers, 3,000 teachers go on leave every day.

He warned the teachers not to take too many leaves, thereby, disturbing the academic programmes. All the teachers should not take leave at the same time, he advised. Collector Bhaskar reiterated that he was worried about the future of three lakh students of the district which was at stake and not the 3,000 teachers.

He pulled up the MEO of Mogalturu for declaring a local holiday to the schools due to a ‘jatara’ in the mandal. He demanded an explanation from the MEO as to why 144 out of the 300 teachers in the mandal were on leave from Wednesday itself. He directed the district educational officer to issue show cause notice to the MEO immediately.

The District Collector made it clear that they have to take his prior permission to declare a holiday in case of any local festival, ‘jatara’ or during emergencies. Otherwise, action would be initiated against the guilty, he warned.

He said that there was a variation in the biometric attendance and stated that every school should have 90 per cent teachers’ attendance. He directed the DEO to utilise the app that was designed for the school children’s attendance.

The district education department officials should take photographs of the schoolchildren in the classes and upload it on to thes app. He asked them to send an SMS to the parents of the students who did not attend the