Teachers oppose bureaucrat as Director, Higher Education

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 18

The government’s reported move to amend the Recruitment and Promotion Rules for appointing a bureaucrat as the Director, Higher Education, has sparked a fresh controversy and government college teachers are up in arms against the move.

The post of Director, Elementary Education, has already been given to a bureaucrat and now others are eyeing the post of Director, Higher Education, but the Himachal Government Teacher Association is bracing up to oppose the move.

“Under the existing rules, the Director is appointed from among the seniormost college teachers and any move to change the rules will reflect mala fide intentions of the government,” said General Secretary, Himachal Government College Teachers Association (HGCTA), Dr RL Sharma.

The post of Director, Higher Education, is like other specialist posts in the Health, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Horticulture, Public Works and Irrigation and Public Health Departments. It should be filled from the feeder cadre.

The HGCTA has already apprised the Education Minister of its concern and categorically stated that the post should be held by a teacher of the college.

In a letter to the Education Minister, the HGCTA said: “It is a calculated move of the bureaucracy to snatch the post from the college cadre. It is submitted that the existing rules provide only one opportunity to college principals to get promoted in his or her lifetime. An educationist can understand the problems of higher education in a better way than a bureaucrat.”

The move will lower the morale of the teaching community and if there is any such move, it should be stalled forthwith in the interest of the teaching community, the letter stated.