Education dept asks details of ineligible teachers in primary schools

AHMEDABAD: The state education department has asked all the district education officers’ offices to prepare a list of teachers in private primary schools who are not qualified for the job. The department has issued a notification to DEO’s offices following an unstarred question asked by Congress MLA from Mangrol Babu Vaja in the state legislative assembly.
Vaja had asked details from the government on how many unqualified teachers have been removed from jobs from private primary schools in the last three years and how many such teachers are yet to be removed from jobs and by when.The notification asks DEOs to provide status of such teachers as on October 31, 2021.
Under the Right To Education Act, 2009 provisions the private primary schools cannot employ a teacher who is not qualified, who have not undergone teachers’ training courses such as BEd or PTC, for the job. Few years ago the state government had begun the process of collecting details of such teachers and had also instructed the school administrations to give time to such teachers to get qualifications and if they don’t then to remove them from jobs.
Sources in the education department said that the government had also started a training course for such teachers and had given a timeframe in which they had to get necessary qualifications. However, many of the private primary schools did not provide such details and they did not even register their ineligible teachers for training courses.
Sources said that a few teachers have been removed from employment but most of the ineligible teachers are still on jobs. Sources said that this notification has put many private school administrations in a fix as they will have to declare officially that despite a given timeframe they have not complied with rules and have not taken any action against such teachers.