Prospects of losing jobs worry BTC primary teachers

The delay in any decision on Special Basic Teachers Training (BTC) is causing concern among thousands of primary school teachers. These teachers after having refused the offer of bridge course from National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) are worried on the prospect of losing their job.

There are more than 17000 serving teachers in Uttarakhand who are Special BTC (termed Vishisht BTC). These teachers are Bachelor of Education (BEd) qualified but to make them eligible to teach in the primary classes the education department imparted them an in service training of special BTC in different District Institutes of Teachers Training (DIET) from the year 2001 to 2016.

 Such teachers were appointed in the Primary teacher cadre of State education department during different periods after the creation of Uttarakhand but the all important recognition from the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) was not taken by the education department of Uttarakhand.

After the issue came to fore the department pleaded that NCTE should grant recognition in retrospection.  This request was not accepted by apex body of teacher education.

As per the new guidelines of the union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, only the Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) qualified candidates are eligible to teach the primary students. It had made it clear that after March 2019, all primary teachers who don’t have a DElEd degree or BTC certificate would be removed from primary teaching.

The BEd qualified candidates who are teaching primary classes were given an option to register for a six months bridge course offered by the NIOS. The teachers however objected to it and most of them did not registered for the bridge course.

The Prathemik Shikshak Sangh (PSS), the association of Government school primary teachers is however in a mood of confrontation with the government on the issue. The President of the Pauri unit of the association Manoj Jugaran i said that teachers should not pay the price of fault and negligence of the officers of the education department. He said that recently the JBT teachers in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh (HP) were exempted from the compulsion of bridge course and D.El.Ed.

Jugaran said that a delegation of PSS met the Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar last month and explained the issue. He claimed that the Union minister gave a positive assurance to them. Jugaran added that if the issue is not solved soon then the teachers would be forced to resume their agitation.