The State Government is planning to challenge the decisions of Uttarakhand High Court (HC) pertaining to the recruitment of primary teachers and adjustment of Shiksha Mitras into the Primary teacher cadre.
The recruitment process of 1891 posts of the primary teachers was stalled last month when the HC ruled that the recruitment is not as per the guidelines laid down in the Uttarakhand Primary Teacher Service Rules 2012- amended 2013. Similarly the HC cancelled the relaxation of clearing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) given to the Shiksha Mitras by the State Government.
The sources at the education directorate revealed that the department is planning to prepare itself to challenge these orders in the double bench. On Thursday the education minister Mantri Prasad Naithani also said that the decision of HC in the Shiksha Mitras case would be challenged. There are about 25000 Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) and Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualified unemployed youths in the state and they were on a path of agitation for government job.
The agitation of the federation was prompted by the recent decision of the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) in which it clearly directed that the posts of the primary teachers should be filled only by the Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) qualified candidates. The NCTE decision means that the current recruitment drive is the last chance for the B.Ed / TET qualified youths to get job as primary teacher. The Shiksha Mitras were appointed as ad hoc teachers in the government primary schools on a monthly stipend of Rs 13000 only.
To get their services regularized they undertook a long agitation and demanded that they should be absorbed in the Primary teacher cadre without the required necessity of TET level I. On the request of state government the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) gave its approval for adjusting them as primary teachers without TET level I in March 2014.
There are 1278 Shiksha Mitras who are Basic Teaching Certificate (BTC) qualified and 2374 SMs who are undergoing Diploma in Elementary Education (D El Ed) course under the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).