Part-time librarians to get full-time jobs

Nagpur: The state education department has decided to convert posts of part-time librarians to full-time, keeping in mind shortage of staff in schools. This issue is specifically regarding government and aided-schools.
A GR by the education department says that across the state there are 2,118 approved full-time librarian posts. Currently, there are 926 full-time librarians, with the rest being part-time librarians.
All hiring in schools is dependent upon the number of students enrolled. In Maharashtra, there are 280 schools with between 2,000-3,000 students. These schools, says the education department GR, need 280 full-time librarians. Also, there are 53 schools with more than 3,000 students, which need 106 full-time librarians. So, the state will hire 386 full-time librarians. But no new posts are being sanctioned, as the part-time posts will be converted into full-time category.
After this, the government plans to ensure all sanctioned full-time librarian posts are filled. The education department has released guidelines for choosing part-time librarians who will fill full-time posts.
A school principal, who had not read the GR yet, said, “This was a long time coming, because very few schools have full-time librarians. Low enrolment schools are struggling to hold on to their teaching staff, so there is no question of requisitioning a librarian.”
The principal added that librarians play an important role as students regularly check-out books. “In many schools, principals urge students to take a book home. Now, most schools have reference books rather than story books or novels. But still the library serves a purpose,” said the principal.