In a good news for thousands of Special Basic Teachers Training (BTC) qualified primary school teachers whose jobs are under threat due to the compulsion of doing Diploma In Elementary Education ( DElEd) before March 2019 , the Union Human Resource Ministry is planning to grant special concession to them. The Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the ministry of aware of the issue and a plan to relax norms for these in service teachers who have done special BTC course on the lines of similar concession given in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is on anvil.
It is worth mentioning here that there are more than are 17000 Special BTC in Uttarakhand. These teachers are Bachelor of Education (BEd) qualified but to make them eligible to teach in the primary classes the education department imparted them an in service training of special BTC in different District Institutes of Teachers Training (DIET) from the year 2001 to 2016. Such teachers were appointed in the Primary teacher cadre of state education department during different periods after the creation of a separate state but the all important recognition from the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) was not taken by the education department of Uttarakhand. These teachers after having refused the offer of bridge course from National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) are worried on the prospect of losing their job.
After the issue came to fore the State education department pleaded that NCTE should grant recognition in retrospection. This request was not accepted by apex body of teacher education leaving these teachers in lurch.
It is learnt that now a plan to provide an in service six month training to these teachers has got the acceptance of the HRD ministry.