The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is likely to constitute a special panel to recruit teachers and lecturers for the civic authority's schools and pre-university colleges.
The civic authority's Standing Committee for Education is considering a proposal to set up a panel comprising professors from the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management.
Committee chairperson B.V. Ganesh said that the panel will help choose the right candidates.
This, Mr. Ganesh said, would help improve the quality of education imparted at the BBMP-run education institutions.
He said that the Standing Committee, since it was formed more than a month ago, has been initiating various measures to improve the quality of education.
“Recently, we launched mobile laboratories and distributed workbooks to all the students appearing for the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination in this academic year,” he said.
He also said that recruiting qualified teachers and lecturers would go a long way in improving quality of education at the BBMP schools and colleges.
He said that more than half the sanctioned posts of assistant teachers, headmasters, vice-principals, principals and lecturers were vacant. Of the 914 sanctioned posts in the 136 educational institutions, 496 posts are vacant.
“The panel members will help us gauge the quality of the applicants. We want to appoint qualified and committed teachers in our institutions. We hope to fill at least 300 posts by getting the panel screen the candidates,” he said.
A large number of the posts have been filled with outsourced teachers, who hold a B.Ed. degree.
These teachers get paid Rs. 7,200 a month, compared to the Rs. 15,000 that permanent teachers get.
The salaries of permanent teachers are fixed according to the Department of Public Instruction's approved scale.
According to information available, the five sanctioned posts of headmasters at the primary schools are all vacant.
There are 292 vacancies for assistant teachers' posts in the 33 high schools, followed by 99 in the 78 pre-schools and 93 in the 12 primary schools.
