The fate of thousands of Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualified youths of the State hangs in balance as the date of March 31 draws near.
The Education department is yet to get the Election Commission’s clearance for appointments in 1994 posts of primary teachers in the State. It is pertinent to mention that after March 31, the BEd qualified candidates would become ineligible to teach in the primary schools of the State.
The BEd/TET qualified unemployed youths carried out a long agitation demanding that the process of appointments in the vacant posts of the primary teachers in the schools of the State should be completed before the above mentioned date as any delay would mean marring the prospects of thousands of such candidates.
Bowing to their demands the state government gave its nod for appointments in 1994 posts of primary teachers in the state before the enforcement of model code of conduct for the general elections. The education department started the recruitment process and received applications of more than twenty five thousands candidates.
The general secretary of BEd/ TET qualified unemployed federation Amit Kashyap told The Pioneer that after March 31 only Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) qualified candidates would be eligible to teach in the government primary schools of the State as per the new guidelines of National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) and the Education department should finish the current appointment process before this date i.e. the selected candidates should join the allotted school before March 31. He said that if the department fails in this task then job prospect of thousands of youths of the state would be jeopardised. Kashyap threatened that the federation would restart their agitation and even work against the state government in the ensuing general elections if their job prospects are put in jeopardy.
Interestingly Uttarakhand has very few DElEd qualified candidates as there is no institute which offers this diploma. The NCTE is yet to give recognition for DElEd to the institutes of the state. The Primary Education Director DS Kunwar told The Pioneer that the department is waiting for approval of the election commission for the appointments in the advertised posts and department is fully prepared for the task.