Darjeeling, March 1: The GTA Sabha
has started issuing appointment letters to 570 primary school teachers
who had cleared entrance tests and interviews in 2002.
More than 4,000
candidates had applied for the vacancies, the tests and interviews for
which were conducted by the district school board in 2002. Even though
570 of them got through the process, the DGHC that was ruling the hills
then didn’t appoint them for reasons never explained.
The 570 are the
first lot of primary school teachers to be recruited in the hills since
1997. The appointment has come at a time when 33 of the 774 primary
schools in the hills are running without even a single permanent
teacher. The 33 schools have only casual and voluntary teachers who
were appointed by the DGHC.
Roshan Giri, the
GTA executive member in charge of school education, said: “The
interviews for these posts were held in 2002 but the DGHC never issued
appointment letters for some reasons. We have started releasing
appointment letters to 570 primary school teachers.”
He said the GTA
would appoint another 267 primary school teachers soon. “For this, a
fresh interview will be conducted,” added Giri.
Members of the
Gorkha Primary Teachers’ Organisation , an affiliate of the Gorkha
Janmukti Morcha, said more teachers needed to be recruited. “Since the
last appointment in 1997, there have been vacancies of 4,000 posts and
they have to be filled up. However, we are happy that the recruitment
process has been revived,” said a GPTO leader who didn’t want to be
named.
According to
sources, in the 774 primary schools in the GTA area, there are 2,140
permanent teachers, 868 casual teachers and 407 voluntary teachers at
present.
The Telegraph
Post a Comment
We love to hear from you! What's on your mind?