The association of guest teachers of Uttarakhand has blamed the State education department for not taking up their case properly in the High Court. A dejected association has threatened to restart its agitation. The HC in an order dated June 2 had put a stay on the process of reappointment of guest teachers in the Government schools. On Friday, the HC bench while hearing the petition, filed by one Sangeeta Sanga, asked the State Government as to why the Government Order (GO) for reappointment of guest teachers should not be cancelled.
The court has given a time of 10 days to the State Government to file its reply. The petitioner had pleaded that the Government is not appointing permanent teachers on the vacant posts and extending the services of temporary teachers.
When contacted, the Vice President of the association of Government school guest teachers, Harish Arya said that thousands of guest teachers in the State are feeling let down by the State Government as it has become clear that the Government counsels are not taking the issue with the seriousness it deserved. He said that the guest teachers are dejected and can initiate a massive agitation which would be much bigger in scale than the one organised in the month of April.
The education department had employed 6,214 guest teachers on purely temporary basis against the vacant posts of lecturers and lecturer Teachers (lT) in the government schools last years. These teachers were appointed for a period of 89 days or end of the session and were paid on the basis of the lecturers delivered by them.
On March 31 this year the department terminated their contract following which these teachers started an agitation. Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani even sat on a hunger strike in support of the agitating guest teachers during the President’s rule. When the Congress Government was restored in the State, it passed a GO for reinstatement of these teachers. This GO was contested in the court and it issued a stay in the process of reappointment of these teachers.