National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Classes Denied

The teachers displaced from their jobs are on a fast unto death strike as classes in community schools remain in a limbo

By THAKUR AMGAI

Teachers of government schools are a favorite punch-bag. Parties of every shade have used them to gain public support and to win the confidence of people during election times. However, this political affiliation has started to haunt the teachers. The atrocities they face from the Maoists in their strongholds are largely because of their political affiliations. And now, the teachers who had been appointed politically or otherwise at various times to fulfill the vacancies temporarily are in the risk of losing their job.

Teachers at the protest : For bread and butter

After the Teachers' Service Commission published the results last year of the exams taken eight years ago, the newly appointed teachers have replaced the old ones rendering thousands of teachers 'jobless'.

Following a series of protest programs, the teachers have now gone to fast onto death and have closed all the community schools to pressurize the government to fulfill their demand of making all the temporary teachers permanent.

The government has already agreed to make 50 percent of the temporary teachers permanent through internal competition. "Of the available record of 23,000 temporary teachers a process has already begun to make 11,600 teachers permanent," said the Minister for Education and Sports Bimalendra Nidhi talking to journalists on the eighth day of the fast unto death and fourth day of the shut down of community schools on November 29.

This, however, is not a new decision taken by the ministry to pacify the protesters. The ministry of education had signed a pact nine months ago with the National Teachers' Union to make 50 percent of the temporary teachers permanent. So, the protesting teachers are not likely to give up their protest anytime soon. Dinesh Thapa, secretary of the committee of agitating teachers said, "We are ready to die, but we will not give up until our demands are met."

Minister Nidhi has also assured to fulfill all their demands in future by changing laws or regulations. However, he does not seem to have support for that from the bureaucrats. Officials at the ministry are stressing on the illegitimacy of making all the teachers permanent. "We cannot make all the teachers permanent because of the newly promulgated education ordinance," said Laba Prasad Tripathi, spokesperson of the Ministry.

Experts argue that the decision to make only 50 percent of the teachers permanent gives a lot of opportunities to the officers for financial irregularities and bribery.

The number of teachers who are displaced is less than the number of vacant posts. 28,000 teachers were newly appointed by the Teachers Service Commission and some of them were already working as temporary teachers. However, the number of vacant posts exceeds 30,000.

"The decision to make 50 percent teachers fails to include all the displaced teachers," says Dhruba Raj Thapa, Vice-Chairman of the Temporary Teachers' Agitation, District Committee, Kathmandu. "Where will the other 50 percent teachers go?"

Many of the teachers who have taught for many years in community schools without being permanent have already crossed the age limit to fight for the post from open competition. "We have spent all these years working for the government," says a teacher on fast. "The government should now take guarantee of our bread and butter."

"It is not a problem created by us. The government created the problem by not publishing the results of the teachers for eight long years," they say. "The government should now clear the mess it has created."

Making genuine teachers permanent can also fulfill the vacant posts throughout the country as well as address the needs of the protesting teachers, but a thorough quality scanning is essential. Many teachers were recruited by political leaders and people with strong influence in the bureaucracy. Recently, former education minister Devi Prasad Ojha, who himself hails from a teaching background, revealed that he himself had recruited his supporters numbering 1500 as teachers in community schools.

In the past the results of the exam taken for vacant post of 14,000 teachers was delayed by eight years as it was disrupted at various stages by the political tug of war. Laws and regulation changed with the change of every government. When Govind Raj Joshi was the education minister in a coalition government he even decreased the cut off points to 35 percent, apparently to pass all his party workers.