Farcical recruitments
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 12, 2013 -

'Is it true? Someone tell me', was the first reaction from one of our readers to the news report on Gauhati High Court's order of February 7, 2013 declaring the notification for recruitment of 1951 lower primary teachers under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which was issued by the Government of Manipur on February 28, 2012, as null and void.

According to the order, the State Government is supposed to issue a fresh notification for recruitment of 1951 Lower Primary Teachers within seven days, form a selection committee and complete the entire recruitment process by March 31 next.

The order of the High Court has come about following an earlier stay order whose hearing was conducted on September 21, 2012 but the judgment kept reserved as well as after hearing two civil writ petitions namely No. 149/2012 and No. 159/2012, which contested that the recruitment rules have been totally sidelined in the process of selection of primary teachers, particularly lower primary teachers, under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and thus prayed for annulment of the recruitment notification.

In short, the 80-page order passed by a Division Bench, Principal Seat of the Gauhati High Court comprising Justice T Vaiphei and Justice S Talpatra has cancelled the appointment of 1951 lower primary teachers, who have already joined the service at various place of postings for more than four months and directed the State Government to conduct fresh recruitment.

Interestingly, the High Court judgment has come about just two days after the State Education Department issued an order for Utilization of Primary Teachers and Upper Primary Teachers appointed under SSA.

As far as we remember, after several rounds of writ petitions challenging the recruitment rules and the followed up interim as well as stay orders of the High Court, the results of the recruitment for 1951 candidates in lower primary and 574 candidates in upper primary were declared by the State Education Department acting on another directive from a division bench of the same High Court in September, 2012 which took due recognizance of shortage of teachers in various schools.

It's true that under section 23 of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, a person possessing minimum qualifications prescribed by an academic authority like National Council for Teacher Education is eligible for appointment as a teacher.

However, in case of States like Manipur which does not have adequate institutions offering courses in teacher education, the prescribed minimum qualification can be relaxed by a notification of the Central Government.

The Government of Manipur is learnt to have been granted the relaxation on July 15, 2011 and accordingly framed two different recruitment rules, one for appointment of lower primary teachers, where a 2-year diploma in elementary education is to be counted and the other for upper primary teachers where one-year Bachelor in Education (B Ed) is essential.

Now the question is if any possible loopholes in the recruitment rules have been already plugged, why the selected teachers, who in most cases have left behind their earlier jobs, are being humiliated and given unceremonial exit?

Do the officials concerned of the State Education Department, who should be actually pulled up for the mess, have any answer to this?