Teachers in Dakshina Kannada government primary schools who used to spend hours auditing school expenses need not worry any more as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has outsourced accounts work.

As many as 20 account assistants will be visiting schools and accounts work.

Dakshina Kannada district has 932 government primary schools. With limited staff saddled with maintaining of the school accounts,the faculty members in the district had started complaining that they cannot concentrate on students and lessons because of added burden of responsibilities. Hence, the State SSA decided to hire services of account assistants through a tender process.

Each of these mobile account assistants will be given the responsibility of 45 to 50 schools. 

These assistants have to visit one school daily and coordinate with the head teachers and make all accounts and ledgers up-to-date. 

It shall take almost two months for these assistants to visit all schools, after which they shall start the process all over again.

“If there are any misappropriations in the accounts we will get to know about it immediately. We shall also get to know if the funds are used on time or have been left unused,” says Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Project Coordinator N Shivprakash to Deccan Herald.

The account assistants who have been selected have a minimum of B Com or BBM qualification. “SSA will pay these assistants through their recruiting agency. They will be paid Rs 6,000 a month with travel allowance,” says Shivprakash and adds that the assistants have been given block-level and district-level training and have already started the first round. 

“We hope to set right all accounts before the beginning of the next academic year,” he added.

Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer  Dr K N Vijayprakash says that this system will reduce burden of the teachers as well as bring in transparency.

CPSMS

Very soon all banking transactions of Government and aided schools can be monitored by Central Plan Scheme Monitoring System (CPSMS).

CPSMS is a public financial management reforms initiative of the Government of India, which monitors programmes in the social sector and tracks funds disbursed.

“At present the details of the schools such as school name, location, banking account is being uploaded in the system. SSA has opened accounts for all schools in State Bank of Mysore in each education block.
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“For any programme, the money gets released directly to the school from SSA. With CPSMS system, higher officials can check when SSA released money to the schools, how the money was spent and other details.

This will bring in transparency and ensure that all money is spent for the required programmes,” said Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Project Coordinator N Shivprakash. (deccanherald)