Education Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia has announced that in order to halt the agitation, a policy has been implemented that extends the maximum age limit of the guest teachers to be 60 years making it similar to that of regular teachers. He also informed he will be consulting Lt. Governor Anil Baijal for his approval, him being the head of the Services matters in Delhi, for the newly implemented policy. He also announced that the rules for the guest teachers will now be similar to the regular teachers.
It was found that over 22,000 guest teachers have been agitating outside Mr. Sisodia’s residence since last week due to the absence of their permanent recruitment even after their contract got ended on February 28, 2019.
“So, 22,000 of these 58,000 were guest teachers, recruited on the basis of merit from time to time through vacancy notifications during our time and before.
Before us, there was a rule that these guest teachers were appointed every year. We stopped this practice. We continued the teachers to avoid the hassle they had to face every year,” he said.
In his defense, he also told that he has been urging for making the guest teachers permanent from the past two years.
“Suddenly, from February 28, 22,000 guest teachers are out of job. My concern is not only for these teachers but also how can schools can function if, of the total 58,000 teachers, 22,000 are out of service,” he added.
It was also found, that on Tuesday Sisodia wrote to Mr. Baijal conveying the problems faced by the schools due to the lack of teachers during the conduction of exams, along with the start of the new session, teachers are missing.
Sisodia also met the protesting leaders who were guest teachers and assured them of implementing a policy to meet their demands and to help them with all educational issues ever faced.
Met the representatives of Guest Teachers who are struggling to save their jobs from policies being implemented by @LtGovDelhi
Delhi Govt shall pass the policy as per their demand and do all the needfull to help them in the intrest of education. pic.twitter.com/O5Pb45bJw0
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) March 3, 2019
Another issue was also identified by the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) which was conveyed to Delhi High Court that states the “substandard” performance of the teachers in the examination conducted to recruit the guest teachers permanently, which most of them failed miserably.
“The performance of the serving guest teachers in DoE who appeared in the examination against the vacancies… has been observed to be substandard.
“Out of 21,135 guest teachers appeared in the examination of various postcodes…, 16,383 candidates failed to get even minimum passing marks,” the board said in its affidavit, which was filed in accordance with pending contempt petition by an NGO.
The Board informed that the final decision of recruiting guest teachers permanently lies with the DoE, especially for those who failed.