Teachers counselling to be done in a record time of one month this year

In its maiden attempt, the School Education Department has conducted the counselling online for the teaching staff from this January 22.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT NEXT that this year the counselling is being conducted following new guidelines of the government and perhaps the whole process is expected to be completed on February 22 or 23.

Pointing out that every year, the School Education Department will conduct counselling for graduate and post-graduate teachers working in government and government-aided schools at the end of every academic session, he said “however, it could not be done since 2019 due to various issues, including general elections, by-polls and lockdown.” “In addition, the physical counselling process will usually drag to about one year”, he said adding that “this year, the authorities were well prepared by taking the vacancy list early”.

Similarly, the official said that the teachers, who seek mutual transfers, pending promotions, appointing headmasters according to seniority and any other grievances were held online in all the district education offices.

“This process made it easy to complete the whole counselling procedure in about a month. This time priority was given to appoint about 1,000 headmasters posts, which was lying vacant for more than two years in various government and government-aided schools,” he added.

Justifying the reason for the importance given to fill vacant headmasters posts, the official said senior teachers are currently holding additional posts of headmasters, which puts more burden. Full-time headmasters, who do not have class sessions, will play a vital role in keeping the administration works intact.

Explaining the new guidelines in teachers counselling, the official said, for the first time teachers cannot work at one school for more than eight years.

“After the completion of eight years of service in one school, the teachers would be compulsorily transferred. Unlike earlier rule, counselling will not take place in an academic session and it would be held in May every year,” he said.