Thousands of Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualified unemployed youths could be deprived of Government jobs if the State Government fails to complete the ongoing recruitment drive for the posts of primary teachers before September 30. On this date the exemption given by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) to the State Government to employ BEd graduates in the primary teacher cadre ends.
The NCTE in its directive to all State Governments had clearly instructed that they should consider only the Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) and Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) level I qualified candidates for appointments in the primary schools. The Uttarakhand Government citing lack of D.El.Ed qualified candidates in the State asked the NCTE to exempt it from the above mentioned rule till March 31, 2014. There are more than 25,000 BEd/TET qualified unemployed youths in the State the new NCTE ruling forced them to launch an agitation to fulfill large number of vacant posts of teachers in the primary schools of the State. Their agitation yielded result as the Education Department initiated recruitment process for 1,898 posts of primary teachers. The Department later added 96, 800 and 389 more posts under backlog quota in this recruitment drive. The recruitment drive was halted when Tehri resident Keshwanand Ghildiyal challenged the recruitment drive on the plea that it is not per the guidelines laid down in the Uttarakhand Primary Teacher Service Rules 2012- amended 2013. In the meantime the State Government was able to relax till September 30 this from NCTE. This extension is also nearing its end and chances are that the NCTE would not be benevolent enough to extend the deadline further.
The BEd/TET qualified unemployed youths are now alarmed over the situation. The General Secretary of BEd/ TET Federation Amit Kashyap told The Pioneer that the State Government should now recruit them by promulgating an ordinance.