Hopes of youths to become teachers diminishing

By Mehboob Inamdar

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The future of lakhs of aspiring school teachers who have qualified eligibility tests appears to be in darkness because of the delay in holding the recruitment process in the State.

Their hopes of becoming teachers are diminishing.

It may be noted that there are more than 1.4 lakh Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools run by Zilla Parishad, Municipal Council and Corporations and private education societies.

Of them, 65,320 schools are run by the local self-governing bodies while the number of private schools is 39,558. The school teachers' recruitment was not held in the state since 2010. Because of this, nearly 67,000 posts of Marathi and Urdu medium teachers

fell vacant in the schools of self-governing bodies and 38,000 posts in private schools.

A total of 763 vacant posts in 196 private schools are being filled through Pavitra portal since 2017, but the process has not been completed yet.

There was a ban on recruitment between 2011 and 2019. The outbreak of Covid delayed recruitment since 2020. Lakhs of youth have been waiting for the recruitment process since 2011. The different teachers' unions demanded to fill vacant posts of teachers, so, the State Government decided to fill 30,000 posts only.

There are two tests to become a teacher. One has to qualify Maharashtra Teachers Eligibility Test (Maha TET) first and then, the Teachers Aptitude and Intelligence Test (TAIT). Lakhs of students qualified both the tests between November 2021 and March 2023 and waiting for the recruitment.

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Give permission for self-immolation

Santosh Magar, the state president of DTED, B Ed Students Association said that the Government should give permission to commit self-immolation if it cannot conduct a recruitment process.

“After strenuous preparations, a candidate qualifies both tests. Currently, we are agitating in Pune and Mumbai, demanding to start the recruitment.

The School Education Minister announced the recruitment schedule orally while he provided different information to the court. Even after becoming eligible for the job, the recruitment process is being delayed for one or another reason. We have fed up with the delay and sought permission to end the life,” he added.

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Losing hopes of jobs

One of the aspirants Sachin Kamble said that he is gradually losing hope of getting a teacher job due to the way the recruitment process is being delayed since 2019.

He said that the Government make it clear whether it wants to recruit teachers or not.

“This will help thousands of students who are going to do diploma or degree courses in education colleges to become a teacher,” he added.

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Sajid Nisar Ahmed, founder secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Urdu Shikshak Sangh said that there was no teacher recruitment in the State since 2010, due to which such a large number of posts fell vacant in Government and private aided schools.

“Thousands of youths have qualified the eligibility tests to become eligible for jobs.

However, the recruitment has not begun yet. Youths are the future of the country. Every year, they hope that they will get a job and become upset. Some of them are depressed over with each passing day. The Government should commence the recruitment process,” he added.