Merit and not seniority will be the criterion for selecting the leadership in primary schools run by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation. The corporation plans to amend the existing rules to introduce a Head Teacher Aptitude Test to select the school principals on merit and not merely on the basis of seniority.
The idea is to appoint meritorious and young teachers as principals of the primary schools. As of now, the senior-most teachers of the schools, usually at the fag end of their service, are appointed the principals that need to be replaced frequency post-retirement. This, according to officials, would be for the first time that an aptitude test would be conducted to appoint principals of primary schools.
The proposal is part of the SDMC’s Vision Document for the Education Department that was adopted by the Education Committee on Wednesday. Chairman of Education Committee Ashish Sood said the head teacher of the SDMC school will be selected from a panel of the young teachers who will have to qualify the mandatory aptitude test (HTAT). “It is usually seen that the senior teachers are appointed the principals towards the end of their career and hence the leadership has to be changed quite frequently. In this regard, the corporation has decided to select the head teachers on the basis of merit and not merely seniority. This will enable young teachers to devote a longer time in their schools,” Sood said.
The Education Committee chairman said the move aims at improving the level of education and better management of the primary schools and make them compete with the leading private schools of the city.