On July 16, 2014 came an important verdict of the Uttarakhand HC. The Uttarakhand high court has made it compulsory for temporary primary school teachers to clear the teachers eligibility test (TET) before they can get a permanent posting in government schools.

The verdict is important as about 3700 'ShikshaMitras' — temporary primary school teachers — have gone to Uttarakhand HC against the rule making TET mandatory for getting permanent recruitment as a teacher.

The verdict came as big setback for the petitioners, as the HC order makes it celar that without passing TET, they cannot be hired as assistant teachers in government schools.

Where Things stand as of now ?

The high court quashed a government order of March 4, 2014, which had given relaxation to 'ShikshaMitras' in Uttarakhand having Basic Training Certificate (BTC). As per the government order, 'ShikshaMitras' with BTC were qualified to be hired as assistant teachers.

The court has also ordered the state government to make provision for the TET to be held every three months. From August 2010, as per the National Council For Teacher Education guidelines, only those who have passed the TET will qualify for the post of assistant teachers.

Uttarakhand was given the relaxation as there are many teachers who haven't cleared the exam.

The Government must be the ideal Employer :

The sadness of the Shiksha Mitras can be understood. It's difficult to believe that after teaching for years on an honorarium, they couldn't get a permanent job. If they still need a TET to prove themselves as individuals eligible to be teachers, then on what ground they were teaching all this while.

That said, the whole concept of Shiksha Mitras is wrong. A Government must be an ideal employer. That's it must recruit people in such conditions (Pay , work conditions , future security etc.) which sets a benchmark for the private sector. If Government starts recruiting people on honorarium or consolidated salaries or too low salaries, then how can it order the private employers to keep in mind the overall growth of the employees.

The Shiksha Mitras who get an honorarium, with no job guarantee, are surely in a difficult situation. Now, they can't plan any other career move, they can't plan personal goals like marriage, family etc.

We often laud the initiatives like Public Private Partnership. But one of the biggest drawbacks of the PPP model in India is that the Private company participating in the PPP model is rarely an ideal employer. It employs people through manpower contractors , that too on consolidated salaries. Not an ideal situation when the person has not only to feed him, but also his family.

Next TET 2014 :

TET will now be held in September, 2014 . According to the education directorate , the ED will go by the high court order and provisions to train the ShikshaMitras will be made regularly to make them eligible for being hired as assistant teachers.
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