Higher secondary teachers in the State have welcomed a government order laying down fresh guidelines for completing their transfer.
The transfer had run into a controversy after the teachers alleged that they had been denied opportunities to exercise options and their seniority had been ignored. The government had then ordered that the transfers be frozen and be taken up after the completion of the local body poll process and rectification of anomalies.
The government had set up a four-member committee led by Additional Chief Secretary V.S. Senthil to look into the anomalies following an order of the Kerala Administrative Tribunal.
The tribunal had ordered that the teachers be given full opportunity to submit options properly and with complete knowledge of vacancies in various schools. The government order has been issued on the basis of the committee’s recommendations.
Open vacancy
The committee directed that the existing vacancies set apart for transfer be published online. The post of a teacher who has completed five years in a station will be treated as open vacancy. Teachers opting for home districts and those to be transferred out should be allowed to choose the district and school they want. Both teachers exercising options for home district and those ‘thrown out’ should be given three days’ time. Seniority of teachers should be the criterion for allotment of schools, it said.
Compassionate transfers should not exceed 10 per cent of the total vacancies in a district. It also lays down norms for preferential and compassionate norms. The committee has also directed that a provisional transfer list be published and teachers be given sufficient time to submit complaints, if any.
These should be rectified, and the final list brought out with the concurrence of the Election Commission.
However, the teachers have expressed concern whether the rectification of anomalies will be possible if those who have already been transferred to their home station are not sent back to their original stations and the transfer process taken up from scratch.
They also say that a uniform teachers’ rotation every three years as done in collegiate education will make the process more transparent.
Seniority of teachers should be a criterion
Compassionate transfers need not exceed 10%
