Promotion of 688 teachers cancelled in Punjab over seniority issue

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Chandigarh, July 17

Underlining a major flaw in the seniority list of schoolteachers, the Education Department has cancelled the list of 688 masters, who were promoted as lecturers.

The list, released recently following orders for revision by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, was cancelled on Monday. The court had scrapped the seniority list of the department issued on June 19, 2019, and sought a new seniority list. The Education Department is flooded with complaints by teachers from all over the state, saying they had been neglected in the list of candidates who were promoted recently.

President of the Democratic Teachers Front Vikram Dev Singh said: “The fact of the matter is that the department does not have any comprehensive list of the eligible teachers. The existing list consisted of more than one lakh teachers, some of whom had already availed the promotion and some even dead.”

“Teachers found that the name of successful candidates included many who were their juniors. So they approached the department. The department does not want to face more embarrassment in front of the court, so is attempting to set its house in order,” he said.

DPI (Senior Secondary Education), Paramjit Singh, said: “We received certain complaints about genuine cases not allowed promotions. We are looking into each case individually and will be releasing the revised list very shortly.”

The department today issued a circular saying that all eligible left-out cases of promotion from master cadre to lecturers need to approach the office in person by July 22. The department will then review the promotions eligible candidates.

Teacher activist Pawan Kumar said: “When the department has announced the last date of accepting the claims for promotions, it should also announce the date when the fresh list will be released.”