The noblest job is often unrewarding, as teachers in Gujarat have realised. There is furore over the government’s decision to recruit teachers on contracts and not as full-time employees.
According to the Education Department, of the 63,622 TET (Teachers Eligibility Test) II appointments between 2011 and 2023 for classes 6-8, 12,7,10, teachers have been recruited as gyan sahayaks or contractual teachers).
As many as 2,35,956 candidates cleared the TET II during this period.
A national daily, citing government data, has reported that only 7,889 teachers were recruited in the primary government schools (from Class 1 till 5) between 2012 and 2023 against 39,395 candidates who passed the TET-I exam.
Contracted teachers earn a monthly salary of Rs 24,000.
It means only 71,511 teachers received appointment letters from 2,75,351 candidates, who cleared the TET I and TET II exams in the last 12 years. Of the 71511 recruited as teachers in this period, 12,710 were on contracts.
In response to a query by Congress MLA Amit Chavda, the state government claimed that 4,138 candidates were recruited as gyan sahayaks (contractual teachers) against 5,985 posts in government secondary schools in the last two years. A majority of the posts were filled on a contractual basis.
Another Congress MLA Arjun Modhwadia said these appointments were carried out in November 2023. As many as 4,108 candidates joined the schools, while 121 resigned.
In September 2022, the state government released a job announcement for the appointment of 2,600 Vidya Shayaks (regular teachers) to TET I (primary schools) and TET II (classes 6–8) positions.
As of December 2023, 2,430 Vidya Shayaks had been appointed.
Nevertheless, the minister noted in his speech that 84.12% of the positions in higher secondary schools and 96.76% of the positions in secondary schools are now filled.
Data reveals that no regular recruitment had been done by the state government in 2023 from across the candidates who cleared TET and TAT.
Further, responding to a question posed by Congress MLA from Lunavada Gulabsinh Chauhan, the state administration said there were up to 275 open positions for teachers and 29 open positions for principals in government primary schools in the Mahisagar area alone. There were 235 open teaching positions in secondary schools and 206 open positions in higher secondary schools in Mahisagar’s grant-in-aid schools.
There are 291 open principal positions and 1,306 open teaching positions in the government primary schools in the Dahod district. Three English-medium schools and 1,637 government Gujarati-medium schools are located in Dahod.
Additionally, just 17 teaching positions in higher secondary schools in Dahod are filled, compared to 47 open positions in government secondary schools and 49 in higher secondary government schools.
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