A hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday on unified service rules for teachers of government and local body schools holds the key for promotions and teachers of these institutions.
The State general secretary of United Teachers Federation Chava Ravi said apparently the government was waiting for the outcome of the case to go ahead with promotions and teachers in which case the process which was expected to be completed in the Dussehra vacation that began today will not happen. The teachers unions had also nursed high hopes on the process in the last summer vacation itself but it was postponed for various reasons.
It was on March 10 that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced in Assembly the government’s resolve to take up promotions and transfers of teachers immediately. But, the schedule has not been issued so far.
The government had last taken up promotions in 2015 and transfers in 2015 and 2018 though the general practice was to complete transfers once in two years. At the same time, the promotions were also completed depending on vacancies. But, the teachers waited for promotions for seven years and transfer for four years. Some teachers, however, were transferred a few months following reorganisation of districts.
The promotions and transfers of teachers was linked to preparation seniority lists district and managements wise. After that, guidelines were issued and a schedule announced. However, this was not done so far due to the court case.
A senior official said it was in these circumstances that the Special Leave Petition on unified service rules which will come up on Tuesday assumed significance. New rules have to be framed based on the court verdict taking into account formation of new districts and zonal system.
There were 1,970 vacant posts of high school head master and 2,100 posts of primary school head master vacant. There were also 7,250 school assistant posts vacant. Nearly 70 per cent of them had to be filled up by promotion. In all, about 11,000 teachers will be affected by promotions and transfers. The Chief Minister’s assurance to sanction an additional 5,571 posts of primary school head master was also not met.
