Head count of teaching and non-teaching staff in State schools has revealed that Kerala has 3,753 excess teachers. The head count last year had revealed the number of excess teachers to be 4,059.
The increase in number of students in State schools this year has brought down the number of excess teachers this year. The 3,753 teachers found excess have been redeployed to vacancies in other schools as protected teachers. Of them, 436 have been newly re-deployed. As many as 528 teachers who had been redeployed in the previous years have returned to their parent schools.
The government had recently issued orders that the teacher-student ratio for Classes 9 and 10 be considered 1:40 to protect high school teachers. Factoring this in, the number of excess teachers is likely to be below 3,500. The redeployment has to be completed before July 15 so that teachers' salaries are not hindered. Those redeployed should join the new schools on Monday. As many as 102 teachers have been redeployed outside the district. These teachers will get more joining time. Palakkad has the maximum number of excess teachers -- 474. Wayanad has the least -- 10. Kollam has 455, followed by Ernakulam with 453 and Thiruvananthapuram with 425 excess teachers. The redeployment of teachers is only to vacancies in government schools; aided schools have been exempted.
The redeployment is only to posts not on PSC rank lists. Once the rank lists come into force and appointments are made, the redeployed teachers will have to be withdrawn.
Moves court
Aided schools managements had approached the courts against a government order redeploying protected teachers to vacancies in aided schools. As per the order, in schools established before 1979 where there are two additional posts, one will be filled from the teachers’ bank and the other can be filled by the schools managers.
