Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Department of School Education, Assam, has released a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the online transfer of teaching staff in elementary and secondary schools, with a special focus on teachers appointed under the Special Recruitment Drive-2024 (SRD).
Under the new SOP, SRD-appointed teachers with permanent status can apply for inter-district single transfers through the online portal, provided they have completed 10 years of continuous service in the same district. This includes their tenure as contractual SSA or State Pool teachers. Given that SRD positions are deemed “personal”, such transfers will occur “with post”, meaning the post itself will move along with the teacher.
In cases where a school ends up with surplus posts due to such transfers, rationalization will be done in accordance with the Rationalization Order-2023. The online transfer portal will soon be updated to reflect these provisions, with the Mission Director (MD), SSA, directing service providers to make the necessary changes. SRD teachers are also permitted to apply for mutual transfers with general category teachers, provided their post category and medium of instruction match. These mutual transfers will also be “with post” and carried out under existing government guidelines.
Significantly, teachers experiencing a mismatch in medium—either in their Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) language or their academic background—will not be required to fulfil the 10-year service condition for inter-district transfers. The SOP clarifies that such teachers can apply directly, and a separate portal option will be introduced to support this category. Additionally, teachers working as Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators (CRCCs) currently serving from their headquarters schools will be allowed to update their profiles to reflect their parent schools. Transfer orders for them will be issued from their respective parent schools.
The SOP also reaffirms that mutual transfers must occur strictly within the same administrative authority. Teachers appointed by the Director of Elementary Education but deployed in secondary schools fall under the jurisdiction of the Director of Secondary Education, and their applications must be processed accordingly.
Importantly, no single transfer application should result in a teacher being posted farther from their residence than their current posting. If no vacancies exist in preferred clusters, teachers may be placed in adjacent ones or have their applications held in abeyance until suitable vacancies arise. All transfers will be subject to maintaining the Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) norms as mandated by law.
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