Assam: Contractual teachers pooh-pooh advertisement for teachers’ posts

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The All Assam Primary TET-Qualified Teachers’ Association has termed the advertisement published on August 6, 2024, by the Directorate of Elementary Education, Assam, for the filling up of 35,133 teachers’ posts as illegal and anomalous. The would-be applicants have been working as contractual teachers and state pool teachers under the SSA (Samagra Shiksha, Assam).

Speaking to the media, the association’s president, Tailokya Deka, said, “On January 17, 2024, the Education Department gave options to the contractual teachers and state pool teachers under the SSA for the regularisation of their posts. The options were such that teachers who sign for the regularisation of their posts will get their jobs regularised as new employees with reduced salaries, and the teachers not opting for regularisation will remain contractual teachers. We have already moved the Gauhati High Court against the options given by the department. We have sought regularisation with pay protection. The issue is sub-judice. In their affidavit before the high court, the department has termed it an academic exercise. The high court has not yet disposed of the case, but the department has advertised for fresh recruitment.”

Deka also said, “The special recruitment drive is a conspiracy to deprive the teachers, who got appointments in 2012 under the Right to Education Act (RTA), of pay protection. The department should have regularised these teachers in 2012. However, the department has made the teachers, appointed in 2012, apply for the same posts by amending the Assam Elementary Education (Provincialisation) Rules, 1977. This is illegal. The department should regularise the jobs of teachers unconditionally.”

 Also Read: Assam: 35,739 teachers transferred amid pupil-teacher ratio bar (sentinelassam.com)

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