Committee demands withdrawal of criteria
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 12 2022:
Taking serious note of the new eligibility criteria published recently for promotion of Primate teachers to Graduate teachers which say that the candidates should score 50 per cent marks and must have completed BEd course, the Graduate Teacher Promotion Demand Committee has demanded withdrawal of the same criteria.
Speaking to media persons at Singjamei Chingamakhong today, Graduate Teacher Promotion Demand Committee convenor Haobijam Somorendro said that the Education (S) Director initiated due process for promotion of Primary teachers to the rank of Graduate teachers in 2016 .
The process was initiated based on the criteria that Primary teachers who have been serving for not less than five years can apply for promotion and the whole process would be done in accordance with the recruitment rules of 1995 and 2016, he said.
After completing several steps, the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) was constituted and an official meeting was scheduled on November 18, 2021 regarding promotion of Primary teachers, he claimed.
However, the meeting of the DPC could not be held as Primary teachers recruited under SSA filed a petition at the High Court of Manipur seeking their inclusion within the scope of promotion.
"We too filed a petition at the High Court of Manipur and the Court passed a judgement on December 21 last year", Somorendro said.
The High Court's judgement said that the nomenclature of SSA Primary teachers should be changed to Primary teachers within two weeks and a tentative seniority list should be made within the next two weeks before the final seniority list is published within the next one week.
The High Court ruled that a final list of all eligible Primary teachers should be published within one month and the DPC should hold its sitting and carry on the promotion process, the convenor said.
Even though the High Court's order should have been complied with by March this year, the Government has neither published the list of eligible candidates nor convened a meeting of the DPC, he lamented.
Some teachers filed a contempt case at the High Court on June 15.Subsequently, the Government brought out a final list of eligible teachers dated June 13.However, the Education (S) Administrative Officer issued a notification on August 5 which said that Primary teachers should have scored 50 per cent marks and passed BEd course for promotion to the post of Graduate teachers.
The particular notification is nothing but victimisation of around 2000 teachers, Somorendro said.
On the other hand, the Deputy Secretary, Education issued an order in 2014 whereby Primary teachers were prohibited from pursuing BEd course, he claimed.
He then urged the Government to withdraw or annul the notification issued on August 5 by August 18 .