Allahabad High Court: Govt move to regularise 1.72 lakh shiksha mitras illegal

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Confirming the development, Additional Advocate General C B Yadav, who represented the state, said: “The court has said that shiksha mitras will not be assimilated as assistant teachers. Even those, who have got training of BTC will continue to remain shiksha mitras”.

He added that the state government was already in the process of recruiting those having passed the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET).

After the government took the decision to assimilate shiksha mitras as assistant teachers in May 2014, a large number of petitions were filed —- at the Lucknow Bench and at the Main bench here in Allahabad – by those holding BEd degree, BTC and having qualified TET.

Finally, following an order of the Supreme Court in the matter, a three-judge bench, led by the Chief Justice, was constituted to hear all the matters together. “The Supreme Court had passed the order on July 27, directing that all matters be heard and disposed within two months,” said Tripathi.

Shiksha mitras, who were supposed to have minimum qualification of intermediate, were appointed during the previous BSP rule through a government order (GO) in 1999. They were supposed to help out the villagers in getting their children enrolled in schools and raise awareness about the need for education.

In 2010, the National Council Teachers’ Education (NCTE) ruled that only those qualify Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) will be appointed as teacher from the primary level upwards. However, it had given an exemption of five years to those who were already teachers.

In 2011, the government got permission from the NCTE to provide shiksha mitras the two-year BTC. Many batches were sent for training since 2011 and some are being trained even now; the total number, thus, reaching to nearly 1.72 lakh.

In 2012, the newly-elected Samajwadi Party government initiated the populist measure of regularizing the shiksha mitras. In May 2014, the government amended the teaching rules, which were implemented after the introduction of Right to Education Act, in which it was said that the shiksha mitras would not require to qualify the TET. It then passed the GO announcing their assimilation as assistant teachers. Nearly 59,000 shikha mitras were regularized in the first phase in June, 2014 followed by another 73,000 in the second phase in June this year

The third phase was put on hold after the Supreme Court stayed the same and asked the High Court to take a final decision on the matter.

“The court was of the view that shiksha mitras were not appointed as teachers in the first place,” said Tripathi.