Education dept bringing changes to fast-track teacher recruitment: Partha

Kolkata: State Education minister Partha Chatterjee said on Monday that his department is ushering in changes in the selection process of teachers, with the objective to fast-track the same.

"We are simplifying the process of teacher selection in the school level to expedite the process of recruitment, which has been taking a lot of time. We have already got the nod of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in this regard," Chatterjee said, responding to a query on teachers' recruitment by Left Front MLA Sujan Chakraborty at the state Assembly.

Chatterjee further reiterated that the state government has recruited nearly 60,000 teachers at the primary level and another 42,000 teachers at the secondary level, since the Trinamool Congress government assumed power in 2011. According to the minister, the government has also recruited 5,316 teachers at the higher secondary level.

Earlier, while responding to a query from Congress MLA Asit Mitra, Chatterjee said the proposal of recruiting fresh graduates as interns for two years in institutes facing dearth of teachers at both primary and secondary levels is still in discussion stage.

However, he clarified that there is no question of recruiting 'intern teachers' in schools at present.

While holding an education meeting in January, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that the government is mulling to recruit fresh graduates as interns for two years in institutes which have a lack of teachers at both primary and secondary levels.

Banerjee had said that the government is exploring options so that fresh graduates can be recruited as interns at the primary and secondary schools in different pockets at a stipend of Rs 2,000 every month at the primary level and Rs 2,500 at the secondary level.

The Education minister stressed that the government is trying to rationalise the teacher-student ratio by picking up teachers from schools where the number of students is low and place them in schools where student density is high.

He assured that the state government is keen to fill up all the vacant posts in schools. "I had a discussion with the Chief Minister and we hope to complete the recruitment by July this year," Chatterjee added.

He also raised his concern over the aspirants going to court, which he claimed has been delaying the recruitment process.

Meanwhile, the police on Monday detained a group of state government primary teachers, who were protesting outside the state Assembly demanding revision in their pay scale. The agitating teachers were later released.