Proposal for single window in a year for Himachal teachers’ transfers

Shimla, July 24

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The Education Department has prepared a proposal that there should be a single window in a year for the transfers of school teachers. The proposal has been made to stop the year-round transfers of school teachers, which adversely affects the learning of the students in the schools concerned. The proposal, which suggest that transfers should be done only in the month of March, will be taken up in the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.

The strength of teaching staff in the Education Department is around 80,000. According to an official, the department deals with a minimum of around 10,000 transfers in a year. “It’s a huge number and leads to litigation and several other issues, hampering the learning of the students. A lot of problems would be streamlined if we have once-a-year transfer period,” said an official.

Cabinet to take call today

• Cabinet will take call on the issue on Thursday.
• Year-round transfers of teachers are adversely affecting the learning of the students in schools.

In many cases, where the transfer is not mutual, the upset teacher delay joining the new station allotted to him, leaving the students in the lurch.

Incidentally, it is not the first time that a government is attempting to formulate a policy to regulate the transfers of school teachers. Such attempts have been made in the past as well, but were eventually withdrawn. In the last government, the then Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj had come close to formulating the transfer policy but the government developed cold feet at the last moment. Now, it remains to be seen if the Sukhu government can push it through.

Teachers, too, feel that the decision would be in the interest of students as they would have teachers throughout the session. Some teachers, however, fear that this move also might fail like the previous moves. “Fairness and transparency are needed for such policies to succeed. It’s the influential individuals having proximity to politicians and bureaucrats who derail these policies for their own interests,” said a school principal.