HYDERABAD : The scattered edu cation departments are expected to pose a major challenge to the new Chief Minister, Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy, who announced in his first press conference that the education and health sectors will top the agenda of his government.

Too many ministers, secretaries, commissioners, directors and other regulatory agencies in the education sector have complicated smooth functioning, instead of facilitating it.

Though there were six ministers for the education sector alone in first YSR and then Mr Rosaiah’s Cabinet, it only made matters worse.

The hasty decision to bifurcate the department of school education into two divisions and to shift some of the crucial subjects from the department of higher education to the secondary education department, proved disastrous.

Academics said unless the new CM addresses these issues, he would be hardpressed to achieve results.

For instance, the department of school education had been divided into department of primary education and secondary education. The primary education department, which was supposed to monitor students from Classes I to V, has been given the responsibility of drafting the syllabus and printing textbooks for all the students from Classes I to X.

Similarly, the secondary education department was asked to monitor students from Classes VI to XII, while there are schools only up to Class X; Classes XI and XII are handled by junior colleges. But at the same time, the Board of Intermediate Education was given an independent status to monitor Classes XI and XII, which were earlier under the purview of the higher education department.