The education department is waiting for audit of the online software it has prepared for the recruitment of 5034 posts of the guest teachers in the Government schools of the State. The department would start the much-awaited process of recruitment after the audit of its software by the National Informatics Centre ( NIC) is over.

The education director R K Kunwar told The Pioneer that all the preparation for the recruitment of the guest teachers in the vacant posts of Lecturer and Lecturer Teachers ( LT) has been made. He added that the online software for the recruitment is ready and the process would start immediately after its mandatory audit.

In the Government schools of the state, a total of 4200 posts of Lecturers and 834 posts of Lecturer Teachers ( LT) lying vacant, the department would appoint guest teachers on these posts on purely temporary basis.

To accommodate the guest teachers who have worked in the past with the department, a provision of bonus marks has been made in the selection process.

The recruitment of guest teachers had been done during the time of the Harish Rawat government when about six thousand such teachers had been appointed in different schools in 2015. They had been appointed for a period of nine months or the end of the academic session on purely contractual basis.

When their contract had been terminated in March 2016 they had launched a massive agitation which forced the then Congress-helmed Government to reinstate them. The order had been, however, challenged in the court which cancelled their reinstatement.

The matter had then gone to bench of the High Court which asked the state government to initiate a proper recruitment process to fill the vacant posts of teachers in the Government schools. The court had meanwhile granted temporary relief to the guest teachers working on posts of LTs and allowed them to work till March 2018.

Acting on the HC order, the state education department had terminated the contract of these teachers in March this year.

The HC on August 14 this year again directed that the vacant seats in the department should be filled by the guest teachers within 15 days.  However, the procedural delays and the subsequent enforcement of the model code of conduct in the state ahead of the urban local body elections delayed the process.

Recruitment process

Taking lessons from the past, the department has decided that this year the appointment of the guest teachers would be done district- wise. The aspirants should be enrolled in the employment exchange of the state. In districts, a committee headed by district magistrates would make appointments of guest faculty.

A stipend of Rs 15,000 per month would be paid to the guest teachers and at the time of appointments the candidates would have to submit an undertaking that they would not make any demand for permanent appointments.  A project management unit (PMU) headed by the education director has been constituted at the directorate level to oversee the appointments.

The PMU would also have additional project director Mukul Kumar Sati as the nodal officer and two deputy directors of secondary education directorate as members.