KOCHI: The Department of Vocational Higher Secondary Education (VHSE) on Friday issued an order transferring a number of teachers, putting more than 10,000 students in a tough spot.
The untimely transfer order is not only a violation of the Department rules that stipulate that general transfers and postings must be done before June, but also a threat to the academic future of the students.
There are 389 VHSE schools in the State, of which 281 are run by the government. For every 14,000 students there are around 6,000 teachers.
With only three months left for the final examinations to begin, the students and the parents are worried about the consequences of swapping the teachers.
“It will be difficult for us to familiarise the new teaching methods in such a short span of time. The subjects are not the ones we can master ourselves. Our grades will fall if we fail to understand even the minor aspects of the curriculum,” said a student.
Speaking to ‘Express’, Education Minister Abdu Rab said, “since the process was completed, we did not find it wise to keep it for the next academic year. There were some complaints regarding the order, which is why it was frozen for a while. However, when the complaints were resolved, the process was resumed.”
To add to the woes of the students, as per the new order, not all the teachers who get transferred from a particular school will be replaced, unless they have applied to the post.
“There are several courses for which no teacher has applied. However, the teachers of such courses will be transferred to the other schools. The students will suffer as they will have to complete those courses without a teacher for the rest of the year,” said Rajani, a teacher at the VHSE, Palakkad.
Last year also, the transfer order was released in the month of August. The latest order has been released with immediate effect.
When asked whether the transfer was done under pressure from teachers who wanted to be transferred immediately, the minister said, “there was no such pressure. Since the process was in its final phase we decided to release it.”