Concern over Teachers Bank

KOCHI: The Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishath (KSSP) has raised   apprehensions regarding the ‘teachers bank’ proposal in the  general education reform package put forth by the government. There is a possibility that the new proposal could be misused by the managements of aided schools, KSSP president K T Radhakrishnan said.The ‘teachers bank’ will comprise teachers from private aided schools who fear job loss. It is from this ‘bank’ that the  teachers, who paid huge amounts to the management to secure jobs, would be re-deployed to other schools, especially government schools, Radhakrishnan said and added it was an  encroachment upon the rights of others.The KSSP is of the opinion that the managers of the aided   schools should appoint teachers from the PSC list, he said.“The observation of the Quality Improvement Programme  Committee of the General Education Department that it was not  possible at this juncture to modify the existing appointment procedures because of political circumstances cannot be agreed upon,” Radhakrishnan said.He also stated that the move to give No-objection Certificate  to CBSE and ICSE schools in the state would destroy the  public education institutions. More and more teachers would be rendered jobless and would be placed in the ‘Teachers Bank’, he noted.He said there was a need to bring in a vigilance system to  monitor the appointments made by the aided schools so that in  future the teachers are not rendered jobless.The  apprehension of the committee that the management of the  aided schools would go on appointing teachers defying the guidelines of the government was very a serious one and in such a circumstance there should be a mechanism for monitoring the appointments, he said.Radhakrishnan added that the KSSP welcomed the comprehensive reforms package which would help in resolving the issues and problems of teachers in government and government aided-schools.Reducing the pupil-teacher ratio, the decision to fill the vacancies in aided schools from the list of the teachers who lose their jobs, imparting two months training to teachers  and implementing teacher ability test for making appointments are proposals that are most welcome, he said.