The order of Uttarakhand High Court (HC) to the Education Department to appoint Block Resource Persons (BRP) and Cluster Resource Persons (CRP) within three months is expected to prompt the department to act decisively on this contentious issue.
The Education Department is under pressure due to divergent views taken up by the two powerful organisations of teachers, the association of primary teachers, Prathemik Shikshak Sangh (PSS) and the association of lecturers and lecturer Teachers (lT), Rajkeeya Shikshak Sangh (RSS).
The PSS is opposed to the idea of removal of serving BRP and CRP working on deputation from the cadre of primary teachers and insists that these posts are part of its cadre. The RSS on the other hand wants that the department should without delay give appointments to all candidates who were selected in the BRP and CRP examinations. The net result of their strong divergent views has resulted in department dithering on these appointments. The State Government is also facing financial loss as these posts are part of centrally funded Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). The HC order has now rekindled the hope that posts of this important cadre meant to lend academic support to primary teachers would be filled soon.
When contacted, the Secondary education director, R K Kunwar said that he has not yet received the court order. He however added that the order of HC would be implemented.
To fulfil the mandate under Right to Education (RTE), the state education department created a separate cadre of BRP and CRP and 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. The department’s plans to sent back serving BRP and CRP (primary teachers working on deputation for long) to their schools was opposed tooth and nail by the PSS due to which the process was stalled.