The appointment on the posts of Block Resource Persons (BRP) and Cluster Resource Persons (CRP) has become Achilles heel for education department due to the differing stands taken up by the two prominent organisations of teachers.
The harried department recently released a special order to extend the term of the selection process of the BRP and CRP. The two year term of the selection process ended on April 30 this year. The new BJP Government appeared assertive on the issue and ordered removal more than 250 Block Resource Coordinators (BRC) and Cluster Resource Coordinators (CRC) working on the positions of BRP and CRP on temporary basis, shortly after assuming power in the state.
However the assertiveness appeared short-lived as it buckled under pressure from the powerful organization of Prathemik Shikshak Sangh (PSS) and implementation of the removal order was stayed.
It is worth mentioning here that the most of the BRP and CRP working in the department are from the primary teacher cadre while most of the candidates who cleared the entrance examination of BRP and CRP are from the cadre of lecturers and lecturer Teachers (lT).
The Rajkeeya Shikshak Sangh (RSS), the organization of lecturers and lTs of the government schools of the state is rooting for immediate appointment of all the selected candidates of BRP and CRP examination. The President of the RSS, Ram Singh Chauhan said that by delaying the appointment the department is doing injustice to both the selected candidates and the students. He said that the state government is also bearing an avoidable burden of providing salaries to hundreds of temporary BRP and CRP. The Union government would disburse the salaries of the candidates of these candidates once a separate cadre of BRP and CRP is created. Chauhan said the matter would be brought to the notice of state education minister soon.
The PSS on the other hand is firmly opposed to the removal of the serving BRP and CRPs. The President of the PSS, Nirmala Mahar met the education minister recently and said the removal of teachers working on these posts for many years would be opposed. The PSS is of the view that BRP and CRP posts should be reserved for the teachers of primary teacher cadre as these posts are meant for monitoring and helping the primary teachers.
To fulfil the mandate under Right to Education (RTE), the department conducted an examination to recruit 285 posts of BRP and 984 posts of CRP in June 2014. After protest from the PSS, the department sat on the result of the examination for a long period. After intervention of Uttarakhand High Court (HC) the department released the result but gave appointment to some selected candidates but under pressure from the PSS it could not send back the more than 250 primary teachers working on these posts back to their original schools.
