VIJAYAWADA: Senior municipal teachers across the State have raised strong objections to the School Education Department’s transfer guidelines, calling the system discriminatory for failing to reward long years of service.
At the heart of the issue is the station point system, which currently caps points at 8 for teachers with eight or more years of service, offering no added benefit to those with two or three decades of experience.
“A teacher with 28 years of service is treated the same as someone with just 8 years. Is that fair?” asked S Ramakrishna, state president of the Municipal Teachers Federation (MTF). He demanded the cap be raised to at least 16 points, which would benefit nearly half of all senior teachers awaiting transfers. He pointed out that while the Transfers Act mandates point allocation based on service at a school, the government order restricts points based on area category.
Under the Municipal Act, municipality teachers are supposed to receive 2 points and corporation teachers 1 point. However, recent classifications grant 1 to 3 points inconsistently, depending on the municipality type.
“This is a blatant violation,” he said, calling for a uniform 2-point allocation for all municipal teachers regardless of municipality category.
The MTF also appealed for a 25% quota for municipal teachers in promotions to Primary School Headmaster (PSHM) posts. Ramakrishna alleged that some less-performing teachers had been promoted, while deserving ones had been overlooked. He thanked HRD Minister Nara Lokesh for recently sanctioning 1,800 municipal teacher posts but urged swift resolution of roster anomalies and protection of senior teachers nearing retirement.
Speaking to TNIE, Director of School Education V Vijay Ramaraju said a unified system had been implemented across government-run schools to ensure fairness and transparency.
“This is the first time in over two decades that 2,000 new posts have been sanctioned for municipalities. It’s a significant boost for municipal teachers,” he added.