Thousands of unemployed Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) and Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualified youths are anxiously waiting the decision of the Uttarakhand High Court, which will decide the fate of recruitment of primary teachers in the Government schools of the State.
The HC on September 12 had completed hearing on the petition of Tehri Garhwal resident Keshwanand Ghildiyal and reserved its decision. The petitioner has challenged the recruitment process of primary teachers on the grounds that the process is not as per the guidelines laid down in the Uttarakhand Primary Teacher Service Rules 2012- amended 2013. In his petition Ghildiyal claimed that the education department is not following the guideline of granting 60 per cent weightage to the marks obtained in the qualifying examination and 40 per cent weightage of the marks of TET and is adopting year wise seniority while preparing the final merit list.
There are more than 25,000 B.Ed/TET qualified unemployed youths in Uttarakhand and under the banner of B.Ed/ TET Federation these youths are on a path of agitation since January 5 this year. The federation is demanding that the government should fill large number of vacant posts of primary teachers in the government schools of the state. Bowing to the agitation the education department initiated the recruitment process in 1898 posts of primary teachers and later added 96, 800 and 389 more posts in the recruitment drive. The matter however went to HC and now these youths are waiting its decision with bated breaths. It is worth mentioning here that the current recruitment drive would be the last chance for B.Ed/ TET qualified youths to become primary teachers as National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has clearly directed that the posts of the primary teachers should be filled only by the Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) qualified candidates. The state government has taken permission from the NCTE for one time waiver of the new rule.
On Sunday a delegation of the B.Ed/ TET federation met Chief Minister Harish Rawat at his Bijapur guest house residence and demanded that the State Government should initiate the process of recruitment. The CM asked the delegation to wait for the order of HC and assured them that the government would immediately start the process after green signal from court. The general secretary of Federation Amit Kashyap told The Pioneer that CM was sympathetic to the demands of B.Ed/ TET youths. He hoped that the court’s decision would be in their favour but added that in case the decision is detrimental to their interests the federation demands that the government should recruit B.Ed/ TET youths by brining an ordinance.