Pune: While the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is trying to convert all its schools into digital classrooms to provide better education facilities to students belonging to economically weaker sections, the education board of the PMC, which runs 606 schools, has been headless for over past one year.
The post of education board chief has been lying vacant since April 2016. This was revealed by the civic administration when senior Shiv Sena corporator Prithviraj Sutar asked a query about the vacant post.
According to details provided by the civic administration, the chief of education board is appointed by the State government on deputation. He is responsible for the functioning of the education board. Since there is no full-time chief of the board, education officer (secondary and technical) Deepak Mali was handed over additional charge.
At present, over one lakh students, mostly belonging to poor sections of society, are taking lessons in the PMC-run schools. The board is headless at a time when the civic body is trying to upgrade classrooms to digital ones to provide better education to these students by investing crores of rupees.
Moreover, many private companies have already come forward to build basic amenities like toilets and buy computers, etc, for these schools. To oversee the functioning of the board, a dedicated officer is needed.
Social activist Vivek Velankar said nobody is interested in improving the quality of education of PMC schools. They show more interest in purchasing material for these schools and the tender process only.
“In the normal course, the ruling party demands a State government officer on deputation. However, neither Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar nor the ruling party have shown any interest in appointing a full-time chief for the education board,” Velankar told Sakal Times.
