Bid to overcome dearth, non-teaching staff to be promoted as teachers by govt

As per a move by the Directorate of School Education, of the total teaching posts lying vacant, non-teaching staff, who will be promoted as teachers, will account for filling up two percent.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that more than 2,000 applications have been received from such non-teaching staff who have evinced interest in becoming teachers in government and government aided schools.

Stating that the appointment of non-teaching staff will be done under the guidance of Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB), the official said TRB officials will look into all the recruitment process, including counselling and certificate verification.“Even candidates, who are working in other government departments, have applied for teacher posts,” the official said, adding they would also be promoted so based on the qualification. Further, pointing out that priority will be accorded to government staff in the teachers’ appointment process, the official said that recruitment will commence in March so that they would be ready for handling classes from next academic session.

Opposing the government’s move of such recruitment, Tamil Nadu Teachers Association president P K Ilamaran asked, “How can persons working in various departments for several years be appointed as teachers when it needs a lot of training to handle children and students?”

Further, he asked whether the staff from other departments will be made to clear the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), which is mandatory for the appointment of teachers in government and government aided schools.

Ilamaran also said with already several thousands of qualified candidates being in the wait list, the move to promote other government non-teaching staff as teachers was not a good move.