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Recruiting teachers on hourly basis was temp arrangement: Himachal education minister
In a press statement issued, the education minister said the state government has introduced this measure solely to address the absence of regular subject teachers during their leave
A day after the protests against the Guest Teachers Policy in Shimla, education minister Rohit Thakur clarified that recruiting hourly-based teachers was a temporary arrangement.
In a press statement issued, the education minister said the state government had introduced this measure solely to address the absence of regular subject teachers during their leave.
The educated unemployed union youth held a protest in Shimla on Monday and had threatened to protest on December 19, in Tapovan, Dharamshala.
Rohit Thakur said these (guest) teachers would be engaged on a period basis, with their services required for a maximum of ten days per month. “This initiative aims to ensure that the education of the students was not disrupted due to the leave of any regular teacher. This arrangement would not impact the recruitment of regular teachers within the department.”
The minister said that the present state government was committed to fill teaching vacancies through a direct recruitment process. The state government was recruiting 15,000 personnel across various categories in the education department, with over 3,000 teachers already appointed, he added.
Education minister further said that the opposition leaders were unnecessarily creating a hue and cry and flaring up the issue of teacher recruitment.
Targeting the opposition leader Jai Ram Thakur, education minister said Jai Ram is focused solely on announcing new institutions or upgrading existing ones during his tenure without allocating adequate budgets or ensuring the availability of necessary staff to run these institutions. “These measures were politically motivated aimed at reaping benefits during the Vidhan Sabha elections. However, the people of the state rejected such hollow initiatives and instead gave a massive mandate to the congress government reaffirming their trust in its policies and programmes,” said Rohit.
Highlighting the consequences of the previous government’s mismanagement, Rohit Thakur said that education standards in Himachal Pradesh deteriorated to such an extent that the state slipped to the 21st rank nationally. He said that Jai Ram Thakur owes an apology to the people of the state for the flawed policies of his government which caused significant damage to the education sector.
Rohit Thakur said that once regular recruitment was finalised, there will be no need to recruit hourly based teachers. He further said that the Congress government has also filled vacant positions within the education department through promotions, whereas the previous BJP government failed to fill up the requisite posts.
