VIJAYAWADA : Though the unemployed youth welcomed the State government’s decision to recruit 6,100 teachers through the District Selection Committee (DSC) exam, some quarters expressed reservations over it.
Expressing happiness over the State Cabinet’s nod to recruit 6100 teachers in the schools of the School Education Department, tribal welfare, social and BC welfare schools, Samayam Hemanta Kumar, State president of Andhra Pradesh Unemployed Youth JAC, underlined the need for increasing the age limit of general candidates from 44 to 47 years to ensure that more unemployed get benefited from the DSC.
“If the government fails to relax the age limit, about three lakh educated people may remain unemployed forever,” he observed.
The N Chandrababu Naidu government had filled 10,313 teacher posts in 2014, based on the DSC notification of the previous Congress regime. Subsequently, the previous TDP government filled 7,916 teacher posts in 2018. After a gap of nearly five years, the State government has announced the DSC to fill 6,100 teacher posts.
It was alleged that about six lakh candidates had faced trouble due to the conduct of the DSC exam for 10 days with separate question papers for each region in 2018. Mentioning the trouble faced by the candidates last time, P Sundaram, an unemployed youth from Razole, said, “The DSC exam should be conducted in one day this time, even if the total number of candidates exceeds 10 lakh.”
However, the two-year apprenticeship policy of the government has worried the unemployed. Some teachers associations have also opposed the apprentice system in the new DSC recruitment.
Andhra Pradesh Primary Teachers Association State general secretary K Prakash Rao said, “We are happy that the government has decided to notify 6,100 teacher posts. But we strongly oppose the apprentice system. According to a report of the Union government, 50,000 teacher posts are vacant in AP. But, the State government has announced a mere 6,100 teacher posts.”
Noble Teachers Association State president Mukala Apparao said, “The time scale apprentice system was cancelled in 2011. Reintroducing it in the name of honorarium in the new DSC teacher recruitment will be a retrogressive step.”
Speaking to TNIE, V Mary Chandrika, Joint Director of APTET, stated that no decision has been taken yet regarding the apprentice system.
“The rules and regulations of the DSC notification will certainly bring happiness to the unemployed,” said the Joint Director of APTET.