Major discrepancies in state govt’s ODL B Ed list, teachers gherao DI

SNS, Malda, 8 July Hundreds of aggrieved teachers today rushed to the office of the District Inspector of Schools-secondary education (DIS-SE) after gross discrepancies were found in the list of the teachers selected for teachers’ training through open and distance learning mode (ODL). The faulty list has been published by the education department. 

The teachers, having no convincing reply from the DIS-SE Mr Asish Choudhury, gheraoed him for hours. 

Mr Choudhury assured them to bring their troubles to the notice of the state education department to resolve the problem. 

It has been learnt from the state education department sources that following a directive from the National Council of Teachers’ Education (NCTE), the state government in its order declared that the untrained school teachers would have to undergo B Ed course by 2015 unless which, their services would be at stake. Yearly increment of the untrained teachers appointed within 2008, according to the order, has been stopped too from 1 July this year. 

Hence, the untrained teachers, who have been reeling under uncertainty about their service and increments, queued up when the state government declared that they would be provided training through ODL from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) of Netaji Subhash Bose Open University (NSBOU). 

Accordingly, a list of untrained teachers were sought from the schools and madrassas by the DIS-SE. The list was forwarded to the school education department. A copy of the list prepared by the DIS-SE was kept available for teachers too and no fault was found. 

But those teachers received a bolt from the blue when they came to know that many of them had no berth in the list of the teachers eligible for the ODL published by the state education department. 

On the contrary, the list contains names of some teachers who have already completed the training. 

As confusion soared, anxious teachers rushed to the DIS-SE office seeking clarification for the ‘surprising error.’ Mr Imtiajuddin Sheikh, an untrained teacher, said: “I was mentioned in the draft list but in the final list I have been eliminated. 

I have already lost an increment that would cause me a loss of few lakh rupees in my service life. I am further confused as the district education department has no clarification.” 

Mr Nirmal Soren, a trained teacher, was surprised when he heard that his name figured in the state government’s ODL list. “I completed my training in 2012. How can I undergo the same training again!” he said. Mr Lokman Hakim, a teacher in Arabic, said according to a former circular some Arabic teachers did not need to undergo B Ed training. 

But on discovering his name in the list, Mr Hakim is now reeling under trouble as he has only four years to retire now. 

The DIS-SE, Mr Choudhury, conceded that there were reasons for the teachers to be aggrieved. “There is a huge disparity between the list sent by us and the list published. I think the published list was made depending on the UDISE report submitted by schools. Such reports are faulty sometimes. 

Hence, errors have occurred in the published list,” Mr Choudhury explained. He said that he would immediately inform the Principal Secretary of the School Education department as well as the Director of Secondary Education (DSE) seeking their advice about the solution of the crisis.