BENGALURU: Teachers are upset over the new criteria for recruitment. After rules about criteria for recruitment of teachers were introduced in the Cadre and Recruitment Rules of 2015, these teachers said they were discriminated against, as the rules specified subjects that the teachers ought to have studied in their graduation - Physics Chemistry Math - to be math and science teachers in primary level.
While the education department is in the process of recruiting teachers for classes 6 to 8, several teachers certified under BEd, DEd and Teachers Entrance Examination felt left out of the drive that will employ more than 10,000 teachers. Now they plan to protest on May 25, at recruitment examinations for government schools.
“Although I cleared Teachers Eligibility Test, which has a validity of only seven years for recruitment, the state government’s decision has made me lose two years. A fraction of aspirants clear TET, and now they have introduced another gateway mechanism that is discouraging for people hoping to join government schools,” said Vijay Kumar, a math teacher for class six to eight in a private school in Bengaluru.
While a few like him have started working in private schools, “Others are not even getting recruited there after the 2017 rules, putting their life on hold.
Appeals were made to the department officials and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, but to no avail,” said Umesh S, president of a forum for Teachers Excluded from Recruitment. Top officials from the department, however, rubbished the arguments, claiming that there was a rationale for recruitment according to the age of the students.
“While we require Physics Chemistry Math graduates for the primary school levels, others doing computer science, zoology etc, will be recruited at a high school and pre-university level, which requires more specialisation,” said the official.