In March 2022, the Gujarat Government admitted in the state assembly that as many as 28,212 vacant posts of teachers and principals in government and semi-government primary, secondary and higher secondary schools are vacant in the State.
Vibes of India had reported on 1st September 2021 that 80 candidates had reached State Capital with demands for speedy recruitment of Vidhya Sahayaks. The agitating youth met with the then Education Minister Bhupendra Sinh Chudasama. Even at that time, the agitators had said that they have carried out protests 42 times, yet the Government failed to lend an ear to their grievances.
The plight of these candidates continues. The fact that the aggrieved have to protest for the 60th time, the apathy of the government towards these candidates becomes more pronounced.
The Gujarat government is turning a deaf ear to the demands of the young people seeking employment as education assistants ( Vidya Sahayak). The agitators, many of them are young mothers with infants on their laps, under the scorching heat beyond 40 degrees in the state capital present a disturbing picture.
It has been 20 days since aspirants from all corners of Gujarat have gathered in the state capital, Gandhinagar and agitating for appointment as teachers in the state education department. However, instead of any interaction
Instead of interacting with them, the young protestors are being detained and treated as criminals. Around 100 candidates who were staging dharna in the scorching heat at the gate No one of the Gandhinagar Secretariat were detained by the police.
One of the agitators, Priyankaben Patel from Mehsana in an interview with Vibes of India said that at least five to six women have come to protest with their children. She said that she has passed the exam in 2018 and this was the first recruitment in which she applied.
They demand that the recruitment process for the vacant posts of teachers be carried out regularly every year as per the recruitment calendar by the Gujarat government. This is causing great injustice to the qualified TET 1 and 2 pass candidates. While the current number of candidates who have passed TET 1/2 is 1,80,000 thousand and the government has announced recruitment for 3000 seats only.
The current recruitment is for 2018 which was announced by the then Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama. As per the rule, 60% of the vacancies are to be filled but only 3300 vacancies are advertised by the government. According to the RTE rule, 3300 teachers should be recruited every year out of which 1300 teachers should be recruited in 1st to 5th standard and 2000 teachers in 6th to 8th standard.
Also, The validity of the TET exam has been extended for a lifetime from the previous 5 years which has made the number of candidates go up to 1,80,000.
State Education Minister Jitubhai Vaghani had informed the assembly that out of 28212 vacancies, 16,318 posts pertained to primary teachers in government primary schools. The highest vacancies for primary teachers are in Kutch district with1436 vacancies. 1088 vacancies are in Dahod and 977 in Banaskantha.
