Even as teachers are agitating across the State for regularisation of job, service conditions, pension and coverage of more teachers in grant policy, the State Government has announced recruitment of 20,000 schematic teachers for primary and upper primary schools against huge vacancies.
The term ‘schematic’ is the old wine in a new bottle after the earlier terms like ‘contractual’, ‘para’, NPS, ‘Block Grant’ and many others, whose singular motto is to continue ad hoc mode of appointment.
The teachers from primary, secondary, higher secondary to higher education are distraught with the Government for being continuously denied of benefits of regular service and they have been holding agitations in the district and State level ceaselessly. But hardly have their demands been fulfilled. This is despite an announcement of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on abolition of contractual and Block Grant systems and his shedding of tears last time looking at the plight of the teachers.
As per the ‘schematic’ arrangement, the teachers to be appointed would work under paltry salary for a period of six years after which they would be taken into a regular mode with extension of various benefits not at a time but phase-wise. Like other teachers, these schematic teachers would, therefore, take to streets one day when they would find no end to their exploitation and their patience at the end of the tether.
Odisha’s education scenario is marred by large scale disenchantment of teachers who are behaving like a hungry- man- is- an- angry- man manner, given their low salary and uncertain service career and an insensitive Government only using them either for its selfish short-term goals or vote bank. Here, a teacher devotes all his life to his service, facing discrimination in salary and status, social stigma and gets retired without any pension at the old age. The profession has therefore been a scourge rather than noble, thanks to the policy faux pas.
The schools and colleges in the rural and interior parts are the worst sufferers of this faulty arrangement. The Government can’t beat its drum of having provided quality education by showing the case of a few institutions whose access is very limited and confined to a few numbers of people; but it has to look at the large body of institutions which caters to the needs of the general and disadvantageous populace. No doubt, under the 5T transformation programme, most of the schools and colleges have been covered across the State. But this is only meant for infrastructural development. What is the use of a smart class if there is no specific teacher to run it? What is the use of a computer or science lab if there is no manpower with specific expertise?
Whether school or college teachers, despite having been divided into various categories, they seem to be demanding for one thing— regularisation of jobs with all due benefits. There is still a silver lining. The State Government has set up an inter-Ministerial Committee to sort out the issues. But it is high time, the Government ended the stalemate.