The Delhi Government’s Directorate of Education has failed to publish norms for teachers’ post fixation in government-aided schools in the Capital since 2009-10. It also does not possess the data on the number of students enrolled and the teachers required in these schools.
Taking a serious note of this lapse, the Delhi High Court has asked the Director of Education to furnish information about the number of government-aided schools, approximate number of students enrolled and the number of teaching faculty in 2009-10 and as on date.
“The absence of any norms fixed by the Directorate of Education over the past few years is an absolutely unacceptable position,” said Justice Hima Kohli of the High Court while hearing a writ petition of Abdul Rehman, a teacher who was denied automatic re-employment after the State Government’s decision in principle to extend the age of teachers’ retirement form 60 to 62 years in 2007.
The Court observed that the lack of action by the State Government had painted a “rather gloomy picture” as these were the very schools that catered to educational requirements of children belonging to a large strata of the society here. It was hard to believe that over the past four to five years, the number of students in the government-aided schools would have remained the same and the requirement of teaching staff would also have remained static, said the Court in its interim order.
The reply of the Director of Education will state when the department had last undertaken steps to publish the norms of post fixation in government and government-aided schools. An explanation for not taking any such steps after 2009-10 will also be furnished, directed the Court, while posting the matter for further hearing on October 15.
Mr. Rehman’s counsel R.K. Saini informed the Court that the managing committee of his school, Mazharul Islam Secondary School at Farash Khana in the Walled City, had not forwarded his application for re-employment to the Director of Education for a decision last year in terms of the 2007 notification. Mr. Rehman has since been relieved from service and the school management has not given him any response.
