The Education department has warned that strict action would be taken against candidates who despite being working as primary teachers in the Government schools have applied in the ongoing process of recruitment of teachers.
Many aspirants for the posts of Primary teachers in the current recruitment drive had alleged that the merit list released by the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) contains 562 such candidates who are already working as primary teachers in the Government schools of the State. These teachers have apparently applied again to get themselves posted in schools located in accessible areas.
A delegation of Federation of Bachelor of Education (BEd)/ Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) qualified unemployed candidates met the Director General (DG) of school education, D Senthil Pandian and raised the issue. Taking note of their complaint the DG asked the department officials to ensure that no working teacher is able to get through this year’s selection process. It is worth mentioning here that the department adopts year wise seniority of doing BEd while selecting primary teachers for the schools.
It is alleged that taking advantage of this fact many serving teacher selected in the years 2011, 2013 and 2015 and presently serving in schools located in mountainous and remote areas, again applied in the present recruitment drive. Interestingly the service rules clearly mention that those serving in a position can not apply again for same post in near future. In the recruitment advertisement also it was mentioned that serving teachers are not eligible to apply again.
The Director SCERT, Kusum Pant told The Pioneer that in the counseling process all the candidates would have to submit an affidavit that they are presently not working in the department. “All the district officials have been asked to strictly scrutinize each and every candidate during the process of counseling. These candidates would lose their present job and would be removed from the counseling immediately. The DG has also said that strict action would be taken against the senior officers who would give No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the serving teachers for appearing in the counseling,’’ She said.
Meanwhile the counseling process for 1,164 posts of primary teachers started in the eight districts of State on Tuesday and it would start in remaining five districts on Wednesday. The aim of the department is to give appointment letters to selected candidates before March 31. The National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has clearly instructed the State Government to appoint B.Ed/ TET level I qualified candidates as primary teachers till the above mentioned date only. After this date only Diploma in Elementary Education (DEl Ed) qualified candidates would be eligible to be appointed as primary teachers.