The decision of Himachal Pradesh government to recruit nearly 2600 teachers in government schools and some colleges as guest faculty has been strongly opposed by trained unemployed teachers, academicians and several other organizations.
The strongest criticism has come from B.Ed and M.Ed degree holders and hundreds of them even held a protest demonstration at Dharmshala on Tuesday.
A protesting trained teacher said , “ The recruitment of unemployed trained teachers as guest faculty is a cruel joke with thousands of degree holders waiting for jobs for a long time; it would be exploitative in nature and we would launch a statewide agitation to oppose the policy”, he added.
Under the policy the state government would employ teachers in schools and colleges on a period basis for one or two years to fill up vacant posts.
The decision has also been criticized by academicians, opposition parties, students, youths and teachers’ organizations.
Former Professor of HP University Prof. GS Chauhan said, “This would promote ad hoc-ism and lower standard of teaching in government schools and affect both students and teachers adversely.”
He said, “This is a new method for avoidance of permanent jobs in the government sector and the cash strapped state government instead of curtailing expenditure on education should cut wasteful expenditure.”
A former school teacher Manoj Parihar said, “ This is not a good decision as it would promote backdoor entry of teachers for political considerations , thousands of teachers recruited as para –teachers , vidya upsak etc recruited without procedure in the past have been regularized by successive governments and enjoying all perks at par with teachers recruited through proper channels.”
Banita Saklani, president of Himachal Government College Teachers’ Association said, “We have been aggressively opposing recruitment of teachers as guest faculty since both teachers and students suffer ; the decision does not look prudent at all,” she added.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, “This is a temporary arrangement to appoint teachers so that teaching of students does not suffer due to lack of teachers and our government would employ permanent teachers.”
BJP, CPM, SFI, ABVP and DYFI leaders have also criticized the decision of the state government.