State to recruit 14,000 teachers to meet shortfall in primary schools

All recruitments will be done through Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).

“The TET for lower primary will be conducted either on May 27 or on the first Sunday of June followed by another test for upper primary schools. The additional 14,000 teachers will be employed as per rules laid down by RTE and National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE),” said principal secretary (primary education) R P Gupta.

At present,there are around 2,05,000 teachers the 34,000-odd schools run by the state government,municipal corporations and district panchayats in the state.

As per the state’s recruitment policy,30 per cent of seats are reserved for female candidates.

Recently,the education department had divided the schools into lower and upper primary sections for better management and implementation of RTE Act. Lower primary schools will have classes from I to V while the upper primary section comprises classes VI-VIII.

Gupta claimed the fresh recruitment was taken up to fill vacancies arising out of shuffling of teachers into upper and lower primary schools,depending upon their qualifications.

Also,it will help meet the recommended teacher-student ratio in all schools. For lower primary schools where the number of students is less than 120,a teacher-student ratio of 1:30 will be followed. In schools that have 200 or more students,the ratio will be 1:40.

For upper primary schools,the desired teacher-student ratio is 1:35.