Headmasters irked at delay in clearing probation period

Jalandhar, February 22

Even as the state government sent selected principals of schools to Singapore for training, 650 headmasters recruited by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) are upset over the alleged step-motherly treatment being meted out to them. They said despite the Director of Public Instructions (DPI) having issued an order on February 11, confirming their appointments, the DEOs were unnecessarily dilly-dallying on the matter.

DeOs dawdling

10 days have passed since the office of the DPI has issued clear directions for clearing the probation cases of headmasters only a few DEOs have cleared the cases, while the other DEOs are not doing so. — Kulwinder Singh Kataria, president, Directly Recruited Headmasters Association

Advertisement

Guidelines awaited

We have written a letter to the office of the DPI seeking clear guidelines regarding the confirmation of their appointments with respect to the service rules, 2018. Once received, their appointments will be confirmed. — Gursharan Singh, DEO (Secondary)

Kulwinder Singh Kataria, president, Directly Recruited Headmasters Association, Punjab said even as 10 days had passed since the office of DPI had issued clear directions for clearing the probation cases of headmasters, the work was not done in all the districts of the state. “Only a few DEOs have cleared the probation cases after the DPI office issued clarification, while the other DEOs are not doing so,” he added.

He said headmasters in Nawanshahr had informed him that DEO (Secondary) had again sought directions from the DPI for clearing the probation cases in the light of the service rules, 2018, which interestingly had nothing to do with probation clearance. “These rules are related to the condition of clearing a test for granting increments, but the department has not conducted any such test so far. Moreover, the department has granted increments to the staff working at headquarters after taking an undertaking from them,” he added.

“In Amritsar, the DEO had not cleared the probation cases citing that the scrutiny of cases was being done to find out open and distance learning cases, while in Jalandhar too, the clearance is still pending,” said Kataria.

Jaswinder Singh Bhullar, secretary of the association, said they had earlier postponed their decision to go on mass casual leave and hold a protest at head office on February 13 after the directions were issued by the DPI office. “But the association will have to rethink its decision if the DEOs continue to harass the headmasters,” he added. He said there was widespread feeling among the cadre as if they had committed a mistake by clearing the PPSC exam.

Divulging details about their recruitment, Kataria said the School Education Department directly recruited young people in various administrative posts in 2019 and 2020. He said while the head teachers (HTs) and centre head teachers (CHTs) were recruited in the primary wing by the department’s recruitment board, the block primary education officers (BPEOs) in the primary wing and headmasters and principals in the secondary wing were recruited through the PPSC. He said they were appointed on a probation period of three years.

He said that the HTs, CHTs, BPEOs and principals had completed their probation in December 2022, while headmasters completed the same in January this year.

Jalandhar DEO (Secondary) Gursharan Singh said, “We have written a letter to the office of the DPI seeking clear guidelines regarding the confirmation of their appointments with respect to the service rules, 2018. Once received, their appointments will be confirmed.” Other DEOs also cited a similar reason for the delay in confirmation of the headmasters’ appointment.