Section 103 in Tamil Nadu Educational Inspection Code
103. Government of India resolution on education Inspecting officers.
- The following extract from the Government of India Resolution on Education (1904) is as true today as it was nearly half a century ago and every Inspecting Officer would do well to appreciate its full significance and bear it in mind in connection with his work."Inspecting Officers should be much more than mere examiners. They should not only judge the results of teaching but should guide and advice as to its method and it is essential that they should be familiar with the schools in their ordinary working conditions. The work of the school should be defined with reference rather to the courses of instruction followed than to the examinations that have to be passed and rigid uniformity either in the arrangements of subjects or in the classification of scholars should be avoided free play being given to the proper adaptation of the working of schools their local circumstances."It should be remembered by the Inspecting Officers that the inspection of schools are not isolated units of the work but they form part of their larger function of promoting education in the areas under their respective jurisdictions. They should not stop with recording their impressions and suggestions in their reports but should assist in their follow-up by giving guidance to the teachers at the inspection conferences, by assisting the headmaster and the staff in obtaining the co-operation of parents and other local residents, by promoting beneficial new endeavours by visiting schools on other occasions than formal inspections (and in the case of elementary schools by surprise and improvement visits referred to later) and by the maintenance of an understanding, critical and intelligent interest in the schools when correspondence relating to them passes through them. From their inspection reports and their general interest in the work of the schools, Inspecting Officers should be in a position to assess not only the merits of the individual schools but also the programme of education in its several aspects and the chief merits and prevailing common defects in their jurisdiction.The statistical and factual information to be recorded in the inspection reports should be as full and as complete as possible so that the inspection report serves as a record of reference for the Inspecting Officer in all matters which may arise in the course of the year. It is often found that many questions which arise relating to individual schools or to the administration of grades or kinds of schools, can often be decided with reference to the information and figures contained in the annual inspection reports if these reports at the time of their preparations are made fully comprehensive and that it is not necessary whenever any question is to be decided to call for "information and remarks" from subordinate offices, this protracting the decisions. Inspecting Officers should bear in mind this valuable second purpose of their annual inspection reports over and above the first purpose of reporting on the achievements and general condition of the school and therefore devote sufficient attention to the reports to obviate unnecessary correspondence on matters of information which the reports are expected to contain. For this purpose, Inspecting Officers should also pay personal attention to the timely writing, fair-copying and submission of their inspection reports, realising that belated reports defeat the objects of inspection and reduce the time available for improvement on the basis of the inspection.
