No full-time Delhi DoE director since last year, educational reforms, teachers’ transfers stalled

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Directorate of Education (DoE), which runs and regulates the national capital’s schools, has been without a full-time director for almost a year. Himanshu Gupta, the last director, education, was appointed secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in December 2023. Two officers who have been in office since then, were given the responsibility of DoE as an additional charge.

Various stakeholders told Careers360 that the absence of a permanent appointment has halted the momentum of educational reforms and in some cases, even the routine matters.

Education, especially school education, has been a very important sector for reforms for the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi and a crucial poll plank whenever it seeks electoral mandate. The Delhi Vidhan Sabha election is scheduled to be held on or before February 2025.

Appointment of bureaucrats was already a subject of massive friction between the elected Delhi Government and the centre-appointed Lieutenant Governor (LG). The arrests of former education minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia last year in an excise policy case, and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi liquor policy case in March this year, made the situation worse. Both are now out on bail; Kejriwal was released on September 13.

In the absence of political leaders and bureaucrats, large-scale events which were routine earlier – such as celebrating the implementation of the “happiness curriculum”, interactions of students with entrepreneurs as part of the “entrepreneurship curriculum” – have been all but missing this year.

The department’s magazines, Abhyuday and Delhi Siksha, seem to be on hold as well. The latest digital issues available on the DoE website, edudel.nic.in, are from April and January, respectively.

No full-time Delhi DoE director: Impact

An official close to the education department shared that organic matters like exams, admission, and results continue to take place, but reforms have slowed or stalled.

“There is nothing which is visibly stalled, but the post of a director is critical to DoE. Sending principals and teachers for training abroad is at a standstill. No new things are taking place. New things like mindset curriculum, which requires a certain kind of drive, have not taken place. These form the backbone of an education revolution,” said the official.

For the Aam Aadmi Party, education has been an important area of focus. Allocating the highest share of the budget towards education, the party has always said that improving government schools has been their agenda and have also flaunted the changes made over the years. After AAP came to power in Delhi, its interventions in schooling have included a new board, new categories of schools, formats for teacher training, curriculum reform and segments in the curriculum on happiness, entrepreneurship and deshbhakti.

On the DoE website, the post of the director education has a blank slot against it. The present director, RN Sharma, is actually the director of the directorate of employment. Education is an additional portfolio assigned to him. Before him, Bhupesh Chaudhary held the director DoE’s post as additional charge. His parent position was director of higher education.

On the effects of not having a full-time director, a deputy director of education said, “A person has to be present here permanently to be able to make quick decisions. Now, since there is no one, the officials in DoE are mostly appearing before the court for matters related to admission, recruitment and other infrastructural problems.”

The officer adds, education is an important matter, hence it needs to be given to someone with a “vision” and has “deep interests” toward improving the system.

Moreover, several officers have been given additional responsibilities.

For instance, Rita Sharma, apart from being director of State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT), also has additional charges of the School of Excellence, exams, primary, health department related issues and several others. Similarly, Vikas Kalia is the regional director education (RDE) of North west A, north West B and central.

In April, the advisor to the director DoE, Shailendra Sharma, was also removed from the posts. The reason cited was that he was appointed in 2016 without the approval of the LG.

DoE director appointment: Genesis of problem

“The model code of conduct was cited as the first reason for not appointing a full-time director. Then, the chief minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal was sent to jail. Since the chairman of the civil services authority is the CM, appointments were not made,” said an official, on the condition of anonymity.

According to a source, not just the post of education director, but several such positions are lying vacant in other departments as well.

“Since February, much before the CM went to jail, a meeting of the National Capital Civil Service Authority has not taken place. The chief minister is the chairman of the body. The NCCSA recommends to LG for transfer/posting, disciplinary actions of civil servants of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (Civil) Services,” he added.

Since 2015, when the Aam Aadmi Party came to power and became part of the elected government, there has been a tussle over the control of the services. A notification then took away “services” from the purview of the elected government. It was challenged in court and a constitution bench was created. The bench laid down the framework and observed in May 2023 that the control of the services were to be with the elected government.

Within a week, the central government brought in an ordinance. It was then replaced by a bill in the Parliament and passed in August 2023. The bill proposed a framework with the NCCSA and the control of services was given to the LG. The chief minister is the chairman of NCCSA with the chief and principal secretaries, home, as member and member secretary, respectively.

Talking about the earlier system, a former IAS officer, who has worked in the Delhi government, said, “The appointment used to take place through the chief secretary, with the approval of LG and the elected government. Then the situation was cordial between the elected government and the LG office.”

Corroborating the statement, an official who was part of the government then, added, “Even though informally, the elected government was consulted during the appointments. It was a consultative process”.

Headless Delhi DoE: Teachers’ concern

For the teachers, the main concern is with the delay in annual transfers. The Government School Teachers Association has also written a letter to the director – holding additional charge – seeking action.

“The annual transfer process is a standard practice each year. However, this time, changes were made to the transfer policy, mandating that teachers who have been serving in the same school for over 10 years must compulsorily apply for transfers. It was then temporarily cancelled following protest. Now, nearly one-and-a-half months have passed, yet the general transfer list has not been released,” said Ajay Veer Yadav, general secretary, GSTA.

Pointing out the importance of transfers, Yadav further explained: “Due to annual promotions and post fixations, some positions become surplus, preventing teachers from being transferred to their desired locations, leaving them without further transfer opportunities for two years. Due to retirement, there are also some schools, which are headless, immediate action needs to be taken.”

The GSTA has also raised the issue of unresolved MACP (Modified Assured Career Progression) scheme, processing of payments for tablets and others.

Another teacher said that while the routice school activities continue, overseen by the deputy education officers, major policy decisions are stalled.

“For several policy decisions to take place, it is the director who is responsible, so in that sense it does affect the system,” said a teacher of a government school in south west Delhi.

In another instance of teachers being left hanging, hundreds have been placed on poll duty for the Delhi Assembly Election 2025 in September. While Gupta had managed to get a similar directive from the Election Commission last year reversed – that time, it was for the Lok Sabha Election 2024 – this year, teachers have had no one to speak for them.

As for the guest teachers, there is no one to heed to their concerns. Since 2017, they have not seen a hike in their salaries.

“Even non-teaching staff who are hired through third parties get benefits such as CL and medical benefits. We do not get anything at all. We are instead like daily wage workers. There is no one to listen to our concerns,” said Shoaib Rana, general secretary of All India Guest Teachers Association.