Fallback on ex-teachers for HS Schools

TT, Calcutta, June 22: The Bengal government has decided to appoint retired teachers to higher secondary schools, where there is an acute shortage of permanent teachers, education minister Partha Chatterjee told the Assembly today.

This will be a temporary arrangement till the vacant posts are filled up.

Around 70,000 posts of teachers are lying vacant in primary and secondary schools across the state.

Chatterjee said the retired schoolteachers would be treated as guest faculties. The minister made the announcement during the question-and-answer session of the House, during which a Congress MLA from Purulia, Nepal Mahato, complained that there were three HS schools in his constituency where no students were admitted to Class XI this year because of a shortage of teachers.

Chatterjee said the problem was not unique to Mahato's constituency and several hundred schools in other districts were facing a scarcity of teachers.

"We have decided to appoint retired teachers as guest faculties in HS schools as a stop-gap arrangement so that the institutions do not suffer till the posts are filled up," the minister said.

The number of vacancies in teaching posts has increased over the past few years and most schools are functioning without an adequate number of teachers because recruitments at both primary and secondary levels have been put on hold since 2014 following court cases and a dispute between the state and the Centre over allowing untrained candidates taking the recruitment test.

The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) had fixed March 31, 2016, as the deadline for stopping the practice of state governments allowing untrained candidates to take the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET).

The primary and secondary TETs were held in 2015, but the publication of the results is pending because of the court cases.

Chatterjee today said the school education secretary would visit Delhi next week and hold talks with HRD ministry officials to appeal for an extension of the deadline.

The minister, however, refused to say what the government was doing about the cases, filed mainly by TET applicants. Several cases are also related to the alleged question paper leak in 2015.

A source in the school education department said no recruitments could be made until the court cases were disposed of.

According to Chatterjee, the government will ensure that the retired teachers can work for a minimum of 180 days a year or until the recruitment of regular teachers, whichever is earlier.

The retired teachers will be paid Rs 200 per class and allotted a maximum of 10 classes a week. The expenses for providing the remuneration will be borne by the state government.