BHUBANESWAR: After months of delay, the state government has finally regularised the services of junior teachers (schematic) appointed during the 2023-24 period.
The School and Mass Education department issued a notification to this effect on Thursday, making the effective date of their regularisation as January 1. The move is set to benefit more than 13,000 junior teachers appointed on a schematic basis during 2023-24, officials said.
As per the notification, the junior teachers (schematic) recruited through due process and continuing in service will be regularised as assistant teachers in Level-V(A) of the elementary cadre with effect from January 1, subject to fulfilment of the prescribed conditions.
The notification, issued in supersession of the department’s earlier order of April 2, said the teachers’ service from their respective dates of joining till December 31, 2025, will be treated as service rendered in schematic/contractual capacity. This period will not confer any right to claim regular cadre seniority or consequential regular service benefits.
The teachers will be entitled to regular pay and other admissible service benefits of assistant teachers in Level-V(A) from January 1, as per applicable government rules and instructions, the notification stated.
The development comes months after Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had announced the regularisation of these teachers. The government had subsequently issued a notification on April 2 laying down the process for their regularisation. However, the teachers were unhappy over delay in implementation of the regularisation order.
On September 18, thousands of junior teachers under the banner of the Odisha Junior Teachers’ Association staged dharna at Mahatma Gandhi Marg in the capital city, demanding immediate regularisation and an end to the contractual appointment system.
They had alleged that despite the chief minister’s public announcement and the April 2 notification, the regularisation process had not been completed.
The association had also alleged that the state government was yet to file an affidavit in a case concerning the matter pending before the high court and had demanded immediate steps to facilitate the regularisation process.