Anxiety prevails among thousands of Bachelor of Education (B Ed), Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualified special Basic Teachers Certificate (BTC) primary teachers of the state as the all important file about recognition of special BTC course is stuck in union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry. The jobs of these teachers were at peril earlier but they were relieved after the passage of the ‘National Council for Teacher Education Bill (Amended) – 2019 in parliament in December last year. The bill provides in retrospection grant of recognition for the special BTC course for these teachers.
In January this year, the union government had notified the new act. After issue of notification the education department had applied for in retrospection permission of recognition for special BTC courses offered by it from the year 2000 to 2016. However the file of in retrospection approval is pending in New Delhi for last seven months. Understanding the problem of teachers, the education minister of Uttarakhand Arvind Pandey said on Tuesday that he would take up the issue with the Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’.
In Uttarakhand there more than 17000 serving teachers who were appointed on the basis of special BTC course.
These Bachelor of Education (BEd) qualified teachers were imparted an in service training of special BTC in different District Institutes of Education and Training ( DIET) from the year 2001 to 2016 to make them eligible to teach in primary classes.
However in 2016 it was realised that the all important recognition from NCTE was not taken by the education department of Uttarakhand for special BTC course. The plea of the department to grant recognition in retrospection was turned down by NCTE as it violates the very act by which it was governed.
As per guidelines of the union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry enforced from 2016, only the Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) qualified candidates are eligible to teach the primary students. The HRD ministry had made it clear that after March 2019, all primary teachers who don’t have a DElEd degree or BTC certificate would be removed from post of primary teachers.
This order created a situation where thousands of trained serving teachers were to lose their jobs after March 2019. The problem of these teachers was sorted out by passage of NCTE amendment bill in parliament and subsequent notification by Government but it appears that a bureaucratic hurdle has came into way of interests of these teachers.