Amid large scale complaints from teachers about irregularities in the transfers, the State Government has decided set up a three member committee. It has also decided to cancel the transfers of teachers done against their wishes from hard to access (Durgam) areas to easy to access (Sugam) areas. In addition, the education directorate has been asked not to reduce the number of teachers from the border districts. Informing about the government decisions, the Education secretary, R Meenakshi Sundaram told The Pioneer that the committee would have joint secretary school education, Kavindra Singh, Deputy director, State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), Anand Bharadwaj and Additional Director, directorate, school education Vandana Gabriyal. He said that the committee would look into about 400 odd complaints of teachers on transfers and submit its report within ten days. Sundaram added that in transfers of teachers who have been transferred to schools located in Sugam areas from Durgam against their wishes would be canceled with immediate effect. He however clarified that the teachers who have joined their new schools after the transfers would not be given this benefit as joining the school means that he or she has no objection for transfer. He said that similarly the transfers of teachers from such single teacher schools where no teacher is sent as replacement would be cancelled. “ No school would be without teachers and no school would be closed,’’ he quipped.
The secretary said that the education department has also been told that in the transfers of teachers done from the border districts it should be ensured that the number of teachers in the schools in these districts is not reduced. In the recent transfers 114 teachers were transferred from Pithoragarh district without replacements. Sundaram added that all the cases of cancellations of transfers would be referred to the committee headed by chief secretary, Uttarakhand under section 27 of Transfers act- 2017.
The decision of the state government on the transfers assumes significance as the education directorate was flooded with irregularities in recent transfers of teachers. In many cases teachers who were on verge of retirement were transferred in violation of the transfers act. Many teachers complained that the act was blatantly violated in the transfers. The department recently affected large scale transfers in the department which is biggest in terms of numerical strength. These transfers were done at the level of state administration, education directorate, divisional and district levels. The complaints of irregularities have emanated from the transfers done at the level of division and districts.