Teachers associations seek exclusion of Assistant Directors from DEO promotions

The Navya Andhra Teachers Association on Sunday (October 26, 2025) urged the State government to exclude Assistant Directors from consideration for District Educational Officer (DEO) promotions.

In a statement issued here, the association’s State president K. Harikrishna and general secretary M. Srinivasa Rao said that Headmasters and Mandal Educational Officers (MEOs) under the Panchayat Raj Department should be promoted as subordinate education officials and the DEO promotions missed by Panchayat Raj teachers under the 12-point cycle should be treated as a backlog.

They said that under a “one-time exemption,” several Assistant Directors were promoted as DEOs and DDs (Deputy Directors) far exceeding the prescribed quota in the 12-point promotion cycle. Pointing out that as per G.O. No. 505 and G.O. No. 73, only two Assistant Directors out of every 12 officers were eligible for promotion as DEOs, they said. However, since many Departmental Vigilance Officer (DVO)posts were vacant and there were no eligible officers in other categories, about 19 Assistant Directors were promoted at once under the one-time exemption.

They said although the approved cadre strength of Assistant Directors was around 80, nearly 40 additional officers had been promoted, making the total far beyond the sanctioned strength. Describing this as irrational and detrimental to the education system, they argued that appointing non-teaching personnel as education administrators had weakened the system, which was already evident as over 40% of students had left government schools.

The association leaders emphasised that to safeguard the survival of government schools and implement the recommendations of the New National Education Policy (NEP) in full, it was essential that only teachers and DIET lecturers with classroom teaching experience were appointed as education officers.

They appealed to the government to implement the 12-point promotion cycle, promote Panchayat Raj Headmasters as subordinate education officers and from among them, promote eligible officers as DEOs, while excluding the excess Assistant Directors from the promotion process.