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School Lecturer : The most stagnant cadre
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| Dr. Pradeep Sharma |
Employment and
career development are important goals in most people's life. People
have to pursue an employment in order to earn their living, but
employment is much more than that. It can be both a source of
satisfaction and of dissatisfaction. A successful career makes a person
proud and happy, failure in one's career has an impact on self esteem
and makes a person unhappy. An extended period working at the same
position has detrimental effects. When you are being left in your
current position and others move up the career ladder , it can leave a
deep negative impact on you.
In the light of these findings, let
us analyse career and life of school lecturers in terms of their
promotional avenues. If you have joined the post of Lecturer school
cadre, then forget any promotion/ career progression for atleast 20 to
25 years. If you are thinking of improving your academic qualification
by doing M Phil or Ph. D. etc. it can give you only self satisfaction.
Acquiring higher education will definitely enhance your knowledge and
efficiency of teaching but efficiency has no significance in education
department as it has no plan of motivation or incentive to such
teachers. School Lecturer is the only cadre in HP where you cannot have
any career progression by virtue of acquiring higher qualification. If
you are a JBT(Junior Basic Teacher) and you acquire higher qualification
you can hope to become a C& V( Classical and Vernacular) teacher or
TGT ( Trained Graduate Teacher), if you are a C& V teacher you can
get promotion as TGT, if you are a TGT you can be promoted as PGT( Post
Graduate Teacher) , if you are in college cadre , you can move higher to
University, but if by ill luck you are a Lecturer or PGT and you have
enhanced your qualification, you cannot think of any promotion/
incentive. At present, hundreds of Lecturers / PGTs are having
doctorate degree or NET/ SET qualified and fulfill the eligibility
conditions for Assistant Professors in colleges/ University. Every time
when the matter was discussed it was turned down by the government on
the ground that for college cadre UGC rules are followed whereas the
truth is that UGC only regulates / stipulates the eligibility conditions
and R& P rules are the prerogative of state government. It is also
to bring to notice here that the government took over nearly 14 private
colleges and hundreds of Lecturers from these colleges were given
regular appointments without holding any screening tests and it is
questionable where were the UGC rules and guidelines then ? The
association cited Andhra Pradesh pattern in this regard where the school
cadre Lecturers are given promotions to college cadre but all pleas
have gone waste as the people at the helm of affairs are reluctant to
pay heed to our grievances. Even right to compete has been snatched from
Lecturers/ PGTs.
At least we have the satisfaction of being
called Lecturer as it is a dignified designation but what about our
juniors? They lost the nomenclature too. Although school cadre
Lecturers/ PGTs and College cadre Assistant Professors have almost the
same qualification but see the difference of their pay scales.
Now, let us analyse the promotional avenues available for Lecturers/
PGTs. The feeding cadre for the post of Principal is Lecturer and
Headmaster. The ratio for promotion or we can say the promotional quota
was based on the numerical strength of the feeding cadre. Before the
inception of new education policy in 1980, Lecturers had a meagre
strength of 367 and Headmasters had a good strength of 569 and as per
numerical strength the ratio was fixed as 45: 55. After the introduction
of new education policy in 1986, the strength of Lecturers increased
rapidly. In 1992 when the R& P rules were changed the cadre strength
of Lecturers and Headmasters was 1817 and 861 respectively and as per
numerical strength the ratio of promotion should have been 68: 32, but
to utter dismay of Lecturers, it was reduced to 40: 60. In 2009, the R
& P rules were again changed and it was made 50 : 50.
As per
present numerical strength (18500 Lecturers/ PGTs and 850- 900
Headmasters), the promotional quota should have been 95: 05. But we have
to be contented with a meagre 50 %. The matter has been raised many
times and when ever we had talks with the government in this regard, our
officers put forth a strange and absurd logic that the the Headmasters
have a cadre of 25000 TGTs behind it (in reality the actual strength of
TGT is a little more than 15000, but it is put forth by including
promoted lecturers and headmasters), ignoring our plea that the feeding
cadre is not TGT but Lecturers and Headmasters. If we take the
strength of TGTs in consideration we find that there are 15% JBTs, 10%
C& Vs who have got promoted to the post of TGTs. It is pertinent to
mention here that the TGTs have 200% promotional avenues. (50% for PGT,
100% for Headmasters and 50% for Principals).
Analysing the options of career progression we find that the world is bleak for Lecturers/ PGTs. Still, we are hopeful that the present state body will be successful in changing / increasing the promotional quota and in redressing the grievances of the cadre as it is striving hard in this direction and has a good rapport with present government.
Analysing the options of career progression we find that the world is bleak for Lecturers/ PGTs. Still, we are hopeful that the present state body will be successful in changing / increasing the promotional quota and in redressing the grievances of the cadre as it is striving hard in this direction and has a good rapport with present government.
Dr. Pradeep K. Sharma
State Senior Vice- President
HPSLA
State Senior Vice- President
HPSLA
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