District Education officers can’t comment on vacancies in schools any more

Karam Prakash

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Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 14

Invoking the increasing number of legal challenges, the state Education Department has asked District Education Officers (DEOs) to stop furnishing information at their level — about the status of vacancies in schools — under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

Education Dept letter says…

• The unemployed teachers have been selectively seeking information about the number of sanctioned, filled and vacant posts in schools
• The information provided by the DEOs in the past has dragged the Education Department into many legal battles, leading to administrative challenges
• In the wake of rise in number of admissions, number of vacancies keeps changing

RTI Act not diluted

To provide exact information, DEOs have been asked to refer the requests to the head office. I don’t think there is any dilution of the Act in doing that. — Vijay Inder Singla, Education Minister

In fact, the Education Department has asked the DEOs to forward all RTI requests, henceforth, to the head office. But, experts say the said arrangement amounts to the violation of the RTI Act.

In a letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the department said it had come to their notice that information, especially by unemployed teachers, was selectively sought about the number of sanctioned, filled and vacant posts. And the information provided by the DEOs in the past had dragged the department into a lot of legal battles, thereby, creating administrative challenges for them, the letter adds.

The department believes that in the wake of the rise in the number of admission of students, number of vacancies keeps changing. Therefore, DEOs have been directed in the letter that they should not give any information pertaining to the number of vacancies at their level and forward such RTI applications to the head office.

Meanwhile, teacher unions have strongly opposed the letter. Vikram Dev, state president, Democratic Teachers Front (DTF), said it was a clear violation of the RTI Act.

“Instead of decentralisation, the Education Secretary is out to take all powers in his hands. Moreover, each school and DEO office has an information officer who can provide information pertaining to vacancies more accurately. Therefore, we demand that the said order should immediately be revoked,” he said.

Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla said: “The orders are specifically for information related to vacancy only. The process of rationalisation of posts is going on. So, the number of posts at any school keeps changing with the passage of time.”