Imphal, October 21 2008: It may sound absurd but the cause for the failure to hold the interview even after the written examination for recruitment of primary school teachers is because the School Education Department just does not have idea how many vacancies are there ! .

Significantly, the candidates who had been declared successful in the written test had imposed an indefinite National Highway bandh from September 17 and though the blockade has not had any effective impact, some trucks were damaged in the first few days of the blockade.

Speaking to The Sangai Express a reliable source said that though the School Education Department had conducted the written test to recruit over 1000 primary school teachers in 2006, they could not go ahead with the interview as apprehensions were raised that the number of teachers requisitioned may be more than the actual number of vacancies.

The Department has still not been able to work out the number of vacancies of primary school teachers and the requisition of more than 1000 teachers may exceed the actual number of vacancies, said the source.

So far the Department has not been able to work out the number of post creation, where and when the teachers were posted, said the source and added that many vital information are yet to be culled satisfactorily.

As such there is a mammoth task before the School Education Department to arrive at the right conclusion about the number of vacancies.

Adding to the present confusion was the trend followed in the last 25 years wherein teachers were transferred from one place to another along with their post, said the source further.

Another factor for the failure to conduct the interview for the recruitment of the primary teachers are the pending cases in the Court which have come about because there are standing Government orders which have stayed the appointment of other teachers with the words, Adhoc/Until further orders etc.

With the schools under the District Council bifurcated from the School Education Department, there is also the strong possibility that there may be excess teachers for Class I to VIII in the valley area, said the source further.

The process to bifurcate class I to class VIII from the School Education Department and place them under the District Council is also still under process and this is another factor for the delay in holding the interview.

Major exercises are needed to put the house of the School Education Department in order, said the source and recalled that earlier too, when a proposal to recruit primary school teachers were put up before the Cabinet, the matter had to be deferred as the number of vacancies could not be furnished.

The MGEL exercise had also exposed that the earlier number of 10000 school teachers was actually 5000 .

The earlier 12000 posts in the Department had also been downsized to 10000 .

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