It is a nightmare for hundreds of newly selected Post Graduate Teachers (PGTs) of the State Government, who have not yet received their appointment letters due to objection raised by the Education Department over validity of their degrees.
The department authorities say affiliation of four universities from where they have obtained their Master degrees are being examined before issuing them appointment letters while the candidates opine that several other degree holders of these universities have already not only joined the Government jobs but got promotions on the basis of these degrees as well.
Several such candidates called on Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal in Jhajjar and demanded issuance of their appointment letters at the earliest so that they could join the Government job.
“The Education Department has not issued appointment letters to those selected PGTs who have pursued their master degrees from Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University, Udaipur, IASE University, Sardarshahr (Rajasthan), Vinayaka Mission University, Salem (Tamil Nadu) and Bangalore University,” said Dharmender Kumar, a selected PGT, while interacting with media persons. He informed that the Government had given appointment to several degree holders of these universities on the posts of BRP under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2013 while many others had been doing jobs in Central Government on the basis of these degrees but the State Government was discriminating by raising objection over their degrees.
“How can the department raise objection over our degrees at the time of issuing appointment letters whereas we have qualified the Haryana Teachers Eligibility Test (HTET) on the basis of these degrees. The authorities should have raised this objection during the scrutiny process if it is right on its part,” said Piyush, another
selected PGT.
Rajesh Kumar, Vikas, Sanjay, Rajratan, Neeraj and Narender, another selected candidates, informed that hundreds of such selected PGTs across the state had approached the higher officials of Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) at Panchkula on December 19 last regarding the issue but no action had sofar been taken while the candidates had eagerly been waiting for a positive news from the Government side.
They claimed that all the universities were affiliated from the University Grant Commission (UGC) to run master degree courses. The facts could also be verified by visiting the UGC website which had not figured names of these universities in the blacklist category, they added.
Meanwhile, Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said degrees of these universities were being examined in order to ascertain their authenticity.
Admitting that several teachers having degrees from the same universities had already enjoyed the promotion benefit, she said such other cases, which were pending before the HPSC due to objections over their certificates, were also being examined. Besides, the opinion of legal Remembrance (lR) was also being taken in this regard,
she added.