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Unit 20: School Inspection

20.5 Recommendations of the Education Commission Notes

Recommendations of the Education Commission (1964-66,) on the Strengthening of the
Inspectorate : The Kothari Commission writes about his role : “Is hardly necessary to emphasize
the importance of the District Education Officer and his establishment at the district level. He is
charged with the leadership function in relation to the district as the Director is in relation to the
State. He supervises the educational institutions at the school level and is assisted by one or more
deputy inspectors and a number of assistants or sub-deputy inspectors who are responsible for the
inspection of primary schools. In some districts, he belongs to class I of the State service; but in a
large number of other districts, he is still in Class II. In our opinion, neither status is adequate for the
purpose”.
“All things considered, the future of development and reform lies in strengthening the district
offices of the Department, and making them service and supervision centres of all schools, and
relating the State level Directorates only for general co-ordination and policy-making. This is the
only way in which the weaknesses of the present departmental administration-rigidity, distance
from schools, lack of contact with the local communities, emphasis on control rather than on service,
etc.-can be remedied.”
(1) The District Education Officer should be given adequate status. This can most conveniently be
done by including this post in the proposed Indian Educational Service when it is created.
(2) There should be adequate delegation of authority to the direct level so that the district office can
function with effectiveness and efficiency. In our opinion, the district office should virtually be
the Directorate in so far as the schools are concerned, and the need for schools to go to the
higher levels in administrative matters should be reduced to the minimum.
(3) With regard to the inspectorial staff at the district level. There are three are three main weaknesses
at present; inadequacy of number; comparatively poor quality of personnel because of the
inadequate scales of pay; and lack of specialization because most inspecting officers are
‘generalists’. All these limitations will have to be overcome. It is, therefore, recommended that
an upgrading of the scales of pay and recruitment of a higher quality of officers should be done
immediately. The Commission also recommends that there should be an adequate specialized
staff at the district levels,, e.g., in evaluation, curriculum improvement, guidance or special
areas like physical education.
(4) It is also necessary to increase the strength of the district staff to cope with all the new
responsibilities delegated to it. In particular, there is need to provide a small statistical cell in
each district office. In is the absence of this staff that is mainly responsible for the inordinate
delays that now occur in collection and publication of educational data.
(5) Similarly, a fair proportion of the staff at this level should consist of women officers, especially
with a view to encouraging the education of girls.

20.6 Inspection and Supervision

Inspection refers to a specific occasion when a school is examined and evaluated as a ‘centre of
learning’ in such a manner that suggestions may be given for its improvement and those suggestions
are reported in a report.
It is an area of school organization, where we want on the one hand, to develop active and
independent thinking and imagination and on the other we want the general conformity to roles
and regulations also. Inspection is more or less authoritarian and rigid in nature. The inspection
officers supervise classroom instruction because of their official position and supposed official skill.
Such inspection does not help in the professional improvement of the teachers and improvement of
instruction. At the time of visit the inspectors confine their attention to the inspection of departmental

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