Mamata govt goes back to Left Front regime system in appointing primary school headmasters

Kolkata, Feb 21 West Bengal government has decided to change the appointing authority for the appointment of headmasters in the different state-run primary schools going back to the system practiced during the previous Left Front regime in the state.

In the changed system, the District Primary Education Council has been given the authority to nominate the names of headmaster for the state-run primary schools in the district concerned and the state education department will just order for the implementation of the nomination from the council instead of directly deciding on the appointment as it is in the present system.

The state education department has implemented the change through an official notification issued on this count late Monday evening.

Observers feel that this change in appointing authority is significant on two counts. First this was the system that was followed during the previous Left regime and even continued for the first seven years after Trinamool Congress came into power in 2011.

However, the system changed in 2018 with Partha Chatterjee as the-then state education minister when the state education department took the direct control of nominating and appointing headmasters for the state-run district primary schools.

Chatterjee, also the former Trinamool Congress secretary general, is currently in judicial custody following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths in July last year on charges of his alleged involvement in the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in the state. Within a week after his arrest the Trinamool Congress stripped off all his ministerial and party portfolios.

State education circles feel that this fresh notification regarding going back to the old system of headmaster appointment, the state government wants to give a clear signal that with the exit of Chatterjee the state education department wants to do away with the systems introduced by him.

However, officially the state education department officials are claiming that the changed system is being implemented to decentralise the system to bring more transparency and efficiency in the system. However, members of the Left-affiliated teachers' association in the state feel that this is a moral victory since indirectly the current regime has accepted the old system as it ensured transparency in the system.