STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Department of School Education, Government of Assam, published an office memorandum regarding the rationalization of teachers and teacher posts. Some of the key points in the memorandum are as follows:
The norms and standards of the RTE Act, 2009, shall be followed in lower primary and upper primary schools. A lower primary school will be provided with a minimum of 2 teachers provided that the enrolment of students is 30 to 60, and authorities will scrutinise all LP schools and UP schools with an enrolment of less than 30 and submit a report for the possibility of any merger or amalgamation. In the case of the need for continuation of the school with a lower enrolment, the local authority will seek government approval with justification.
The number of teachers will be counted, taking the counts of all categories of teachers, including contractual teachers. In the case of secondary schools, the post of assistant headmaster or vice principal shall be counted against the additional teacher. Graduate teachers can be considered substitutes for assistant teachers but not vice versa, and a PGT can be considered a substitute for a graduate teacher but not vice versa.
The necessary information on the number of teachers and enrollment in a school for rationalization will be obtained from Shiksha Setu, Axom. The class plan and assignment of subjects and classes to a teacher shall be the responsibility of the head teacher or principal.
The District Level Committee constituted under Rule 5(5) of the Assam Elementary and Secondary School Teachers (Regulation of Posting and Transfer) Rules, 2022, shall be the competent authority for rationalization within a district. The State Level Committee constituted under Rule 5(1) and Rule 5(2) of the Assam Elementary and Secondary School Teachers (Regulation of Posting and Transfer) Rules, 2022, shall be the competent authority for rationalization from one district to another district.
The district-level committee will be responsible for monitoring the rationalization of teachers and posts of teachers, and the state-level committee will devise a rationalization strategy for transferring posts from one district to another. The first attempt will be to transfer or rationalize the teachers (with posts) within the block area to minimize dislocation, followed by the district. If there is a lack of sufficient teachers in the block area, the District Level Committee will transfer or rationalize the teachers (shift with posts) within the district to achieve rationalization as per RTE norms. Similarly, the State Level Committee can transfer or rationalize teachers (shift with posts) from one district to another to achieve the desired rationalization as per RTE norms and secondary level norms.
As of now, new teacher appointments can be made against the vacant posts created earlier school-wise only but there has been a change in the enrollment and required number of teacher posts. To achieve the RTE norms, the District Level Committee and State Level Committee can transfer or rationalize vacant posts both within the district and from one district to another, respectively.
While rationalizing, in a particular teacher category subject-wise, the most junior teacher in terms of tenure in service shall be transferred first. Teachers who have only 3 years until retirement should preferably not be considered for rationalization. A physically challenged teacher, a female teacher, and a teacher with health problems (duly certified by competent authority) should not be posted in difficult areas. These teachers should be preferred for posting in areas with better road connectivity.
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