In connection with the agitation called by the NSF and ENSF in support of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) teachers, the State Cabinet had reviewed the situation and the Department of School Education is giving factual position so as to set the issue in the right perspective and also enable the general public to understand the problem in a more holistic manner.
A press release by the School Education Department stated that as of now there are 1990 Government Schools in the State with the total enrollment of 169,548 and the number of teachers are 19265. There are 6 Government Schools with zero enrollment and thirty two(32) Schools with zero percent(0%) pass percentage in HSLC. The teacher to student ratio is now one(l) teacher for nine(9) students (1:9) whereas the national average is one(l) teacher for thirty two(32) students(l:32). The requirement of teachers in Government Schools are now about 9000 whereas the present total strength inclusive of SSA and RMSA teachers are coming to about 20,000 and this is now a huge burden to the State. It may please be noted that there are some Schools with many teachers without any student and there are also Schools where teachers are more than students.
In the earlier Cabinet decision on 3rd October 2018, the Cabinet had decided in principle to bring the teachers of the 2010 and 2013 batches of SSA and RMSA into the mainstream of the School Education cadre with a condition that all the Schools will be linked with bio-metric attendance and Aadhar number of all teachers will be linked to the same. The Cabinet also directed the Department to Club/merge all neighbouring Schools which are not performing, producing Nil results or have negligible enrolment.
The Department was also directed to work out optimum number of teachers required as per enrolment. Further the Cabinet directed the Department to frame guidelines or find a feasible solution to give golden handshake to the teachers who are under qualified or untrained teachers. It may please be noted that the said Cabinet decision has given certain conditions and the Department is in the process of fulfilling those conditions. However due to the CoVID-19 pandemic and other constraints the process has been slowed down.
The Department of School Education had already apprised the representatives of NSF & ENSF of the status of the issue at hand on 10th of September 2020. The issue was also reviewed at the level of the Chief secretary on 14th September 2020 and on 6th October 2020 and the actions taken by the department to fulfil the conditions stipulated in the Cabinet decision issued vide No.CAB-2/2013 (Pt) dated 05.10.2018 on mainstreaming of SSA and RMSA teachers were deliberated. A meeting was also chaired by the Chief Secretary on the 9th October 2020 with the NSF and the ENSF wherein the position and the status of the issue was explained and a request was made to them to re-consider and withdraw the proposed agitation to be launched from 12.10.2020. It may please be noted that these batches (2010 and 2013) of the SSA & RMSA teachers were recruited through respective District Selection Boards and it took the department considerable time to undertake massive exercise to cross check the records. Meanwhile comments of the P&AR, Department and Finance have since been received and the Department of School Education is now in the process of submitting the issue to the Cabinet. It may please be noted that the Department of School Education is doing whatever is possible inspite of various constraints and keeping in view of the CoVID 19 pandemic situation wherein the State is still under various SOPs issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005, the student organisations have been requested to understand the difficulties being faced by the State and withdraw the agitation in the interest of all stakeholders.
(DIPR)