BENGALURU: The Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) recently approved the appointment of 35,000 guest teachers for primary government schools in the state and 10,000 for high schools. The vacancies in about 49,679 government schools in the state were pending for a long time and raised several questions on the quality of education in government schools. While the new academic year already began during the first week of June, the government hopes to fill these vacancies soon for 2024-25.
So far, according to sources in the education department, the temporary recruitment of guest teachers is in full swing. The department has assigned the Head Masters (HMs) of the schools to recruit individuals at a school level to speed up the process. The circular mentioned that the recruitment drive should prioritise hiring guest lecturers in rural areas, schools with no teachers and more so schools with high student ratios.
Speaking to TNIE, BB Cauvery, Education Commissioner, DSEL, said, “We’ve asked the HMs to focus on hiring for Science, Maths and English as students mostly find these difficult to cope with. The other reason is also that the results indicate that these are the three subjects where students underperform, and we see most failures.”
She added that the vacancies for different subjects vary from taluk to taluk and the Deputy Directors of Public Instruction (DDPIs) are made accountable for the hiring and will need to update on a timely basis.
The Commissioner assured that all of the sanctioned guest teachers will be soon occupied. The HMs will hire on the basis of merits for the subjects and the honorarium for primary school teachers has been set at Rs 10,000 a month and Rs 10,500 for high schools.
K Nagesh, president, Karnataka State Primary School Teachers Association, said though the government’s move is welcome to ease the burden on teachers, the department should focus on hiring permanent faculty.