Don’t want remote postings: Teachers

Ludhiana: Since the government teachers had reported their issues with the transfer policy to the education department recently, Punjab education minister Meet Hayer has set up an online meeting with their unions for Thursday.
The teachers have complained with the department that they are posted to remote areas even when the schools near their home stations have vacancies. The education minister invited their representatives to an online meeting on Thursday afternoon on these reservations. Government teacher and master cadre union president Gurpreet Singh Riar said: “The teacher transfer policy ignores ground reality, which is why it is ineffective. The transfers are done by force and so the teachers are didsatisfied with the process.”
Riar claimed that: “Many teachers don’t wish to join the new schools after being transferred. We have requested the state education minister to seek suggestions from the government teachers before taking any decision that impacts them. Historically, the policy recommended transfer withing the cluster.”
Another government teacher unionist Sukhvinder Singh Chahal said: “Every teacher should get a chance to be posted near home but loopholes in the transfer policy deny them this chance. The teachers deputed far from there homes can be accommodated easily in the nearby areas where posts are vacant. The teachers have been demanding it for long and even various commissions have recommended that teachers be deputed near home so that they do satisfactory work.”
The ad hoc teachers claim to be harassed the most. Temporary teachers’ union convener Jagsir Singh said: “We get hassled in most by these transfers. When the teachers are shifted to the other stations, they don’t even have the guarantee of settling down in the specific allotted schools. The district education officers and block primary education officers can transfer them futher or change their schools on their own, even if the education department rules don’t allow that.”