Teachers posted through random lottery in Assam
GUWAHATI: The BJP-led government in Assam has used computerised random lottery to post 7,234 teachers across 10 districts.
The appointment letters for these teachers will be uploaded on websites of education or associated departments from where they can download and join their assigned schools on June 27. These 7,234 teachers were among 38,000 candidates who had passed the Teachers Eligibility Test (TEST). They were selected on the basis of their marks and either passing or appearing for their Bachelor/Diploma of Education (B.Ed/D.Ed) exams, a must under the RTE Act.
Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said six leading educationists oversaw the lottery, conducted on Saturday, as neutral observers. “The lottery was done at least twice for these 10 districts to offset any technical or human error. In the case of Barpeta district, the lottery was done four times,” Sarma said on Sunday. The highest number of teachers – 2,619 – was posted in western Assam’s Dhubri district, bordering Bangladesh, through the computerised lottery. The least, 48, was in north-central Assam’s Darrang district. “The entire process was video-recorded, and anyone who has doubts can obtain the footage through RTI,” he said.
Officials said the district where each candidate applied was taken into consideration when the computerised lottery was conducted. At least 30% of the appointed teachers were women, as per norms. Sarma said 30,000 posts of teachers are vacant in Assam, but they cannot be filled up as the state does not have enough candidates with B.Ed degree or diploma.
“We can, in keeping with our pre-poll promise, appoint the remaining 30,700 TETpassed candidates temporarily working under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. But they are not armed with B.Ed/D. Ed,” Sarma said. Appointment or regularisation of teachers was one of the BJP’s election promises. Last week, the education department made college and higher education free for students belonging to families whose combined annual income is less than ` 1 lakh. This took effect from the current academic session.
The government has also decided to make education from higher secondary to university level free for special or differently-able students from this session. “There is no family income ceiling for such students. They will also be given the benefit irrespective of their performance,” he said.