Around 50,000 non-B.Ed/ non-trained school teachers across India could lose their job as they have not been able to register themselves for getting a degree so far, which has been made mandatory.
The last date for registration is March 2018.
As per the Right to Education Act, teachers are required to have a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree if they want to teach in schools. Those who do not have a degree have been given time till 2019 to get one. This has been done through a Bill passed last year, which made an amendment to the Right to Education Act, 2009, as a last chance to such teachers not to lose their jobs.
Ministry of Human Resource Development has entrusted the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) with the responsibility of training these teachers and get them to complete their degrees. Non B.Ed teachers will not be allowed to teach after that.
However, out of around seven lakh non-B.Ed teachers, there are around 50,000 teachers who have not even been able to register themselves for getting a degree with NIOS. "Due to lack of proper documents and other issues, more than 50,000 teachers have not been able to register themselves with NIOS so far. Some teacher bodies have made representations to the ministry to facilitate them to register. However, nothing has been done so far and the last date of registration is in March," said a source from Ministry of HRD.
The Minister of State for HRD (Department of School Education) has now sought a meeting with NIOS to discuss the problems these people are facing in registering themselves.
"Most of the teachers who are facing problems were inducted as Shiksha Karmi to fulfill teaching vacancies in remote areas. Now they do not have relevant documents to register themselves," the source added.
Many new schools had come up in the days of educational expansion under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the RTE, and many teachers who were hired did not have requisite degrees, some having studied only till school. They were given five years to train themselves, and many did, but 5-6 lakh private schools teachers and 2.5-lakh government school teachers still did not have the requisite degrees.
