Candidates in the Public Service Commission (PSC) rank lists for the post of High School Assistant (HSA) are set to launch a campaign against their alleged neglect beginning with a protest in front of the office of the Director of Public Instruction (DPI) in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.
The protest is being organised by the Kerala Teachers Rank Holders Union as part of transforming it into an umbrella organisation of HSA rank holders.
The union has put forth a four-point charter of demands before the education department authorities: report all vacancies in government schools to the PSC, stop deploying protected aided schools teachers in the vacancies entitled to HSA rank holders, raise the proportion of direct recruitment through the PSC to vacancies and do away with the practice of calculating that proportion based on the total cadre strength.
Allegation
“Vacancies in government schools are not being reported to the PSC and are instead being filled with protected aided school teachers. In fact, the delay in the publishing of the PSC rank list could be attributed to this failure to report vacancies,” said D. Veena, secretary of the union. She alleged that even vacancies reported to the PSC that should have gone to rank holders are being filled by aided school teachers.
However, Director or Public Instruction K.V. Mohankumar told The Hindu that all vacancies had been reported to the PSC. “Not a single protected teacher has been appointed in vacancies reported to the PSC and for which a rank list exists,” he said.
Though the PSC notification inviting applications to potential posts of High School Assistants was issued in 2012, the publishing of rank lists started only towards the end of last year. Even now, only rank lists for languages have been published in select districts while even short-lists for other subjects have not been published.
“Limiting direct recruitment through the PSC in high schools to around 50 per cent of the total vacancies reported compared with the significantly high percentage in other departments is grossly unfair. The rest is reserved under inter-district transfer and promotions. For instance, PSC rank holders are entitled to only 30 per cent of the vacancies of language teachers,” said Ms. Veena.
Rank holders complain that even that limited opportunity is being sabotaged by the education authorities by calculating that proportion based on the total cadre strength. “For instance, if PSC rank holders already account for 30 per cent of the total cadre strength of language teachers, then no future vacancies will be open to them,” Ms. Veena said.
Mr. Mohankumar declined to comment on complaints regarding limited proportion for PSC recruitment and the consideration of cadre strength stating that those issues would have to be examined.
