‘Regularised’ KGBV teachers demand new posts

Srinagar, Feb 14: Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) teachers have not yet been appointed on new posts, even as the government claimed 18 months ago that it had “regularised the teachers’ services”.
The School Education Department had in July 2016 said that it utilised the vacancies in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) schools to regularise the services of the KGBV teachers.
However, State President KGBV Teachers Forum, Mymoona Khan, said that, despite the order, they have been working at the KGBVs with only their salaries released by the SSA.
“We have not been shifted to the SSA schools yet,” she added. “While the government regularised some of the KGBV teachers, the files of several teachers, who have submitted them to the Directorate of School Education Kashmir in March, are still pending.”
“This only happens in Kashmir. In Jammu, every single KGBV teacher is regularised after applying at the Jammu directorate,” she said.
Saying that the posts in the SSA to be occupied by the KGBV teachers were “still vacant”, a teacher said, “Contractual staff shall have been appointed in the KGBV schools to relieve the regularised teachers”.
“The teachers are still serving at the KGBVs.  Although the govt claims that deputation of teachers has been done away with, these mainstreamed teachers who serve at the KGBVs on the basis of deputation contradicts the authorities’ claims,” the teacher said.
“If the KGBV teachers were really mainstreamed, they should have been posted in the SSA schools and the vacancies thus created at the KGBVs should have been fulfilled through a contractual staff, which would be funded by the central government. This would also ease the burden on the state government,” added the teacher.
A top official in the School Education Department said the regularisation of the KGBV teachers “is not possible” as the latter were not in the state’s domain and were “appointed by the centre’s KGBV society”.
“If the KGBV teachers are really to be regularised, the government would have to create special posts for them,” the official added.
Director School Education Kashmir, G N Itoo could not be contacted for comments over the matter as he denied calls made by this reporter.