3,500 TEACHERS TO MOVE

Lily

B.R
Staff member
Ludhiana August 10:
At least 3,500 teachers across the state will be transferred in the current session (2008-2009) in the coming week under “rationalisation” of work force in schools. Apart from transfers to schools in cities, a large number of teachers will be moved to schools in rural areas.
Harish Rai Dhanda, chief parliamentary secretary, showed a file of applications of 70 teachers wanting transfers stalled on “various technical grounds”. As many as 540 teachers in Ludhiana district are to be transferred.
Dhanda claimed irregularities in the deployment of teachers in government schools of the state. “Under the existing conditions, we found schools where certain teachers took only five/six lectures in a week and even lower,” he said. Each teacher is expected to take at least 30 lectures in a week.
The government has initiated a move to shift lecturers, masters and mistresses from schools which had surplus teaching staff. “Teachers will be shifted to vacant posts in their own towns or villages, in their first preferences, or to a nearby village, in case of need,” Dhanda said.
The government has fixed the teacher-taught ratio at 1:40 for classes VI to X. For plus II classes, the ratio is 1:60. In case, the quota crosses the maximum strength by 10 per cent, a separate section will be provided for in the school concerned. The teachers not conforming to the requirement of minimum classes for plus II classes will also be expected to take classes IX and X.
Schools are expected to appoint teachers for subjects which have at least 10 students and classes having less than 10 students will likely be wound up. A section of teachers is demanding a uniform transfer policy. A woman teacher said, “Teachers, like us, who have no political or official connections always end up paying for any changes by the department.
Those having connections always manage the place of choice”. A senior teacher said, “We don't mind transfers in case the state announced uniform transfer policy even if it meant being moved out after three or five years". The policy clarifies that the teachers with more than 50 per cent physical disability or those suffering from cancer or serious heart diseases will not be moved out.
It has been clarified that a city or a town should be treated as a single unit and a surplus teacher should, in the first place, be shifted within the city of his current posting. In case, a teacher was surplus, he could be moved anywhere in the tehsil. It has also been clarified that in case no proper vacancy for a teacher was found in the city concerned, town or tehsil, a teacher could be moved anywhere in the state.
 
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