Battle lines are clearly drawn between the biggest associations of Government teachers, the Rajkeeya Shikshak Sangh (RSS) and the Prathemik Shikshak Sangh (PSS) on the issue of appointments on the posts of Block Resource Person (BRP) and Cluster Resource Person (CRP). Following the order of Uttarakhand High Court (HC) to appoint all the candidates who cleared the entrance examination for the posts of BRP and CRP, the RSS has demanded immediate implementation of the order.
The General Secretary of the association, Sohan Singh Majila 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 once a separate cadre of BRP and CRP is created.
The PSS on the other hand is firmly opposed to the removal of the serving BRP and CRPs. 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.
The General Secretary of the PSS, Digvijay Singh said that the Government on one hand is making Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) compulsory for teachers of primary classes and on the other hand forcing such people on the posts of BRP and CRP who have no knowledge of primary teaching or child psychology.
He said that only STC or DElEd qualified persons should be appointed on these posts.
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.
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).