Punjab promoting non-expert teachers as lecturers: Haryana corrected course in 2012, Punjab happy with ‘obsolete’ rules

Similarly, 49 teachers from maths/science and 123 from social studies have been promoted as Punjabi lecturers, while 127 science teachers and 41 from maths have been promoted as English lecturers.

These teachers were promoted based on postgraduate degrees in that subject— a majority of them obtaining it via correspondence/ distance learning mode. It was done without considering whether they had studied those subjects during their undergraduate course or whether they had ever taught those subjects to junior classes.

Punjab vs Haryana: How the rules differ for promotion as teachers

For instance, those teaching maths/science their entire career without studying English elective or having BEd with English as a teaching subject will now teach the language to Classes XI and XII.

Similar rules existed in Haryana. The neighbouring state, however, corrected the rule in 2012: a Post Graduate Teacher (PGT) can seek promotion as lecturer only in the subject he/she is a master [Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT)] and has previous teaching experience in the same subject.

According to the updated Haryana State Education Cadre (Group B) Service Rules 2012, a PGT, for instance in English, has to be recruited from the TGT English cadre only. The same rule applies to all other subjects.

The Haryana rules further say that a teacher being promoted as PGT English must have an “MA in English with at least 50 per cent marks and BEd from a recognised university with two years of teaching experience as TGT English and certificate after clearing Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test”.

It further clarifies in case a social studies TGT is promoted as an English PGT, they must have studied “English Elective” as a subject in graduation. Every TGT English in Haryana has to study English Elective in graduation with at least 50 per cent marks in BA, the rules say. On the other hand, Punjab’s rules do not declare a minimum percentage that a teacher must score in postgraduation, nor do they count whether the subject has been studied in graduation or not. They also do not mandate that a teacher has to study that particular subject’s teaching technique in BEd.

For instance, according to the Punjab Educational Service Rules Group B (amended in 2018), any master/mistress who has passed MA in English and BEd from a recognised university or institution and has teaching experience for a minimum period of five years can be promoted as an English lecturer. This rule applies to all other subjects including Punjabi, Hindi, history, mathematics, economics, political science, etc.

Speaking with The Indian Express, an English lecturer who is also the principal of government school in Haryana, said, “Earlier, we also had similar rules as in Punjab, leading to chaos and incompetence. Since PG in maths/science cannot be done via correspondence/distance education, teachers from those subjects started clearing PG in languages via distance education to get easy promotions. However, Haryana rules were amended in 2012 and now a TGT teacher can seek promotion as PGT only in his own subject. Ignoring the teachers who have done UG and PG in the same subject and not giving them promotion to teach higher classes is not just unfair to them but also an anti-student rule. Also, in Haryana now, PGT teachers teach Classes IX to XII and TGT Classes VI to VIII, as happens in CBSE-affiliated private schools.”

In January 2018, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had junked a plea by several teachers who moved court seeking promotions in other subjects under the old rules. Upholding new rules for the promotion of TGTs, the high court and held that teachers can be promoted as PGTs “only if they possess a postgraduation degree in which they are currently teaching”. “It would be irrational for this court to direct that the higher posts be filled in even by those who have no teaching experience in that particular subject on the lower post, or have no PG degree in that specific subject. Obviously, the improvement stipulated in new rules is for the benefit of students, and this court would thereof loath to interfere with better standards of education for students,” the court had ruled.

The court further ruled that “in fact, if a TGT has acquired PG in another subject, then he/she should first teach the new subject to lower classes, gain experience and then seek promotion to teach higher classes”.

A senior officer of the Punjab Education Department said the previous Congress government had planned to discontinue inter-subject transfers when the new rules were released in 2018. The plan, however, was shelved due to pressure from teachers’ unions.

According to the 2018 rules, a teacher appointed either through direct recruitment or promotion had to undergo a departmental test and another for proficiency in computer skills within two years, and the questions had to be from the syllabi that teachers had to teach. The rule further said if a teacher failed to clear the test, his/her annual increment would be stopped.

However, even as the department issued several letters announcing dates of such tests in November 2021 after promotions that year, the tests were never conducted due to unrelenting protests by teachers who refused to appear.

Punjab Education Secretary Kamal Kishor Yadav said, “Promotions have been done as per specified rules. When a teacher has a master’s degree in a subject, we expect him/her to do full justice to that subject while teaching. Since the rules were made in 2018, when I was not in this office, I cannot comment on why the subject of graduation and teaching experience were not included in the rules.”

After the AAP came to power in March 2022, protests against the tests based on 2018 rules intensified and teachers’ unions mounted pressure on the government to cancel them. Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains later ordered the removal of the “test condition” from the promotion rules.

Dharamjit Singh, Finance Secretary, Lecture Cadre Union, Punjab, said, “We opposed the tests as Punjab rules promote teachers based on seniority.”

Education Secretary Yadav said, “We have already sent the rules for amendment removing the test condition as no other department denies increment to employees based on a test.”