Raising of retirement age to hit 70K teaching aspirants in State

Chennai

The government had recently issued an order to increase the retirement age of the employees by a year, the cascading effect of which is being felt by job aspirants and those hopeful of getting promotions. As of April, about 68 lakh government job aspirants had registered with the employment exchange across the State, according to the statistics prepared by the Labour department.

A senior official told DT Next that 1,82,191 candidates have registered with the employment exchange seeking secondary grade teachers job in government and aided schools. In addition, 2,49,093 persons have registered for postgraduate teachers’ category, said the official.

Of them, about 70,000 candidates have cleared Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), which is mandatory for getting teachers job in government and aided schools. “With government extending the retirement age, they will have to wait. Next year, the waitlist numbers would cross one lakh,” the official added.

Sources from Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board said about 3.02 lakh teachers are working in government and aided schools from primary to higher secondary level at present, of whom about 15 per cent are near retirement age.

A senior official from the Directorate of School Education added that about 80,000 graduate teachers handling Classes 9 and 10 and more than 40,000 postgraduate teachers in handling students of Classes 11 and 12 in State-run schools had registered to participate in the counselling session for the current year, which is usually conducted in May.

The counselling comprises various activities including transfer and promotion decisions, in which teachers who have worked for one full academic year in any government or aided school are entitled to attend. “However, as the retirement age of government staff has been increased, the counselling is unlikely to take place this year,” the official said.

“With more than 900 headmaster posts are yet to be filled in various schools across the State, the retirement age extension will affect teachers who are eligible for promotion to become headmasters,” he added.

The official said the government would also lose money by paying huge salaries for the teachers who are at the verge of retirement. “If the retirement age was not extended, the salary outgo would have been much less,” he said.