GANDHINAGAR, June 2: The government will soon initiate the process of recruiting about 20,000 PTC-trained unemployed teachers in primary schools, Minister of State for Education Anandiben Patel announced here on Tuesday.The government has also scrapped the mid-day meal scheme under which cooked food is served to students of primary schools in the state.Patel told reporters that the finance department had cleared the education department's proposal to recruit PTC-trained unemployed teachers in primary schools in the state. A formal decision on both the schemes would be announced in a day or two, the minister said.The process of recruiting nearly 20,000 PTC-passed teachers will be completed by the month-end, she said, adding that the cases of inter-district transfers of primary teachers and an exercise of filling about 2,000 surplus posts of in primary schools will also be taken up this time around.She said candidates, who have passed B A and topped it with a B Ed, would also be eligible for recruitment as primary teachers.It may be mentioned here that Express Newsline had on April 21 reported that Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel wanted to continue the ambitious ``Balguru Yojana'' introduced by the previous Shankarsinh Vaghela regime to recruit PTC-trained unemployed teachers in primary schools, overruling Anandiben Patel's earlier suggestion to scrap it.After detailed discussions with the chief minister, the education department had then sent a note to the finance department for its approval, as the scheme, when implemented, would entail an estimated additional burden of Rs 60 crore. The scheme will now be implemented under a new banner, Shikshan Swayamsevak Yojana, and the teachers will be known as Shikshan Swayamsevaks and Swayamsevikas, and not Balgurus.The teachers will be paid an ad hoc monthly remuneration of Rs 2,500 and their services are proposed to be regularised in place of teachers who retire every year. Thus the service of all 20,000 primary teachers to be recruited under the scheme is expected to be regularised in the next five years.Regarding the mid-day meal scheme introduced by former Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki in the mid 80s, Patel said that since the scheme was highly impractical, the government would scrap it.She, however, declined to spell out an alternative to the scheme when a reporter sought to know if the government proposed to provide 10 kgs of foodgrains per student in place of cooked food.The minister said representatives of the staff attached to the mid-day meal scheme had met her on Monday and expressed apprehension that about 80,000 workers would be rendered jobless if the scheme was scrapped.``I suggested to them that the workers would be absorbed in government services in a phased manner, but the suggestion was not acceptable to them,'' she said.Responding to a query, she said there should be some control over private tuitions. The minister said the government was yet to take a decision on whether to accept the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations for school teachers. Top
