Primary and Middle English school teachers miffed at appraisal move

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Primary and Middle English school teachers (both contractual and state pool) continue to differ with the government on teachers' performance appraisal.

The Assam Primary TET-Qualified Teachers' Association said that the teachers in question got their appointment under the relevant rules of the RTE (Right To Education) and NCTE (National Council for Teacher Education) and were working as teachers for the past ten years. "The ruling party did assure these teachers of regularizing their jobs in the run-up to the 2016 Assembly election in the state. The State Government paid scant regard to the policies and directives of the PAB (Project Approval Board) of the Central Education Department. Instead of regularizing the teachers' jobs, the State Government adopted a policy of harassing the teachers. The State Government is out to harass the teachers with mark-centric evaluation on the pretext of agreements at a time when states in rest of the country are taking adequate measures to regularize the services of contractual teachers," the association said.

It added, "Based on a Cabinet decision on May 26, 2020, the Governor issued a notification on July 1, 2022, ensuring the jobs of contractual teachers would continue till attaining 60 years of age. The government used a 'nowhere-found' phrase 'almost regular' and asked the teachers to sign a contract. The notification made it clear that the 'almost regular' teachers would get benefits equal to that of regular teachers. Two years have elapsed after the publication of the notification. However, the assurance failed to see the light of day even today. The government has also failed in fulfilling other clauses of the notification like medical reimbursement, death benefits, proportional dearness allowance, making payment of salaries without anomalies etc. The government, however, is out to evaluate teachers' performance through self-appraisal which is detrimental to the teachers. The mark-centred evaluation is insulting to the teachers. The teachers oppose their appraisal. Let the government implement other clauses of the contract or cancel it."

The teachers have been staging their agitation district-wise as decided by the Association in its meeting on December 4, 2022.

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