119 Haryana govt high school heads to be demoted

Tribune News Service

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Rohtak, September 13

In all, 119 headmasters of Government High School across the state would be demoted in compliance with a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict. The Department of School Education has issued them show-cause notices to explain why they should not be demoted. More than 60 headmasters have already retired.

Sources say that in 2014, 860 Elementary School Headmasters (ESHMs) were promoted to the post of High School Headmaster under the Haryana State Education School Cadre (Group B) Service Rules, 2012. Some challenged the promotion in the High Court, raising questions over the eligibility of those appointed as Classical and Vernacular (C&V) teachers for subjects such as Hindi, Punjabi and Sanskrit.

In December 2015, the court had directed the department to consider the candidature of all eligible applicants who fulfilled the criteria of qualification and experience as per the amended Rules of 2012.

Subsequently, “the department re-examined the candidature of all 860 ESHMs and found 119 of them not entitled to the promotion. Before issuing the order of demotion, the headmasters have been issued show-cause notices”.

The communiqué further stated that teachers were ineligible for promotion because they had neither been appointed to the post of Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) nor they had completed eight years of service on the post of ESHM.

An affected headmaster said, “All 119 C&V teachers were given the status of TGT in 2012. So, the move to demote us is inappropriate. We will approach the HC.”

District Education Officer Vijaya Lakshmi said the headmasters had been asked to file their replies within 15 days.