School Lecturer : The most stagnant cadre

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.

Dr. Pradeep K. Sharma
State Senior Vice- President
HPSLA

 (Artical from facebook )