Interviewtimes 
Samir Ranjan Dash, Minister for School & Mass Education
Samir Dash is one of the most dynamic and result driven ministers in the Naveen Patnaik led BJD government. He is known for his penchant for reforms. Recently, he announced a major shake-up in the school & mass education department. According to the new announcement the District and Block Level Education Officers (DEO and BEO) cannot be posted at one particular place for more than six years.
The employees who have been posted at one particular station for more than 6 years shall be transferred as soon as possible.
Das can be radical and intolerant if the quality of teaching is compromised. Disenchanted with the quality of teaching in a few government schools, the minister in February this year, ordered blocking of salary of headmasters and teachers of two schools in Kalahandi and Balangir districts.
He has also suspended the headmaster of Government High School at Kantabanji in Balangir district and issued show-cause notice to 10 teachers after finding gross dereliction of duty.
The Minister who visited the school in the day found students roaming outside the classrooms during class hours while the teachers were busy chatting in a common room in the absence of the headmaster. The Minister directed students to come back to the classrooms and asked them questions related to various subjects.
With students giving wrong answers, he accused the teachers of being negligent towards their education. While suspending the headmaster, he directed the DEO to block the day’s salary of the teachers.
Reviewing the functioning of schools in the district, Das assured that rationalization of pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) will be strictly implemented before the beginning of the new academic session this year. As per the Right To Education Act, the PTR at primary level should be 30:1 and at the upper primary level, it should be 35:1. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) framework stipulates that the PTR at secondary level should be 30:1.
However, many Government-run schools in the district do not have sufficient teachers to maintain the PTR, which will be rectified, the Minister said.
Das has played a crucial role in smooth reopening of educational institutions of the state post pandemic induced shutdowns. The minister called for truncating the syllabus of schools by 30 per cent so that learning does not become burdensome for students.
Last year, the state government had shut down schools due to the pandemic while the students were in the middle of the examinations.
Dash expressed apprehension that there is a remote chance of conducting physical classes for Classes 1 to 8 this year in view of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the country.
