Updated on: Monday, April 29, 2013
More than 500 teachers who have been declared as surplus in Ahmedabad and Surat districts are yet to be adjusted.
It has been more than a year since these teachers in secondary schools were declared surplus after Class VIII was transferred from secondary to upper primary schools. On the other hand, in response to the demand and vacancies across the state, the state education department conducted the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) and subsequent released an advertisement in October, last year for the appointment of 10,000 teachers. But the entire appointment process is at a standstill as sub judice.
Principal Secretary (Education) Hasmukh Adhia said, "While, most of the surplus teachers are being adjusted, remaining will be done in a short time. Except Surat and Ahmedabad district, the problem has been addressed to."
The adjustment of surplus teachers is said to be raising a bone of contention between the education department and the municipal corporations. As per the rules, the secondary schools teachers are paid by the education department. While the primary teachers are paid in 80:20 ratio by the education department and the corporation, respectively.
Thus, with the transfer of teachers from secondary schools to primary schools, the onus of 20 per cent share of the salaries would fall on the corporations. "The issue of distribution of salaries is being sorted out between the corporation and the education department but the problem exists in major districts where there is a presence of corporation. Around 450 teachers are surplus in Ahmedabad," said Ahmedabad municipal school board chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.
Similarly, the Surat municipal school board chairman Atul Patel said, "Meetings and discussions over the issue of surplus and shortage of teachers have been conducted with the education department. While, there is shortage of 500 primary teachers across subjects in different medium including Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati and others, we are not hoping to get these all filled by the surplus teachers."