Major Relief to ReT Teachers, No screening test for 40,000 ReT teachers
Total Teachers : 40,000
In a major announcement, the Education Department today said there would be no screening test for over 40,000 teachers engaged under the Rehbar-e-Taleem – ReT scheme.
It said only about 400 teachers who had secured degrees from “tuck shops” (study centres) would have to take the test.
It also announced that the teachers recruited for target area (students) in the department would be relieved from all non-teaching assignments, including election, Census, mid-day meal and other offbeat responsibilities in the department, to utilise their potential to the maximum for the welfare of the students.
In the last two years, the screening test for the ReTs remained a major issue. An impression was being given that the Education Department was trying to test every ReT. We have studied the issue of the ReTs. Of the total 41,000 such teachers, only 1 per cent of the ReTs (about 450), who have secured degrees from tuck shops, will have to go through the screening test as directed by the court,” Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari, Minister for Education, told reporters here while rolling out fresh initiatives to put the education sector back on track.
Bukhari said the government also wanted to be fair to about 450 ReTs to be screened. The test will be based on the eighth standard syllabus and they will be given two chances, the minister said.
The issue of the ReT teachers came to light in May 2015 when a ReT teacher failed to write an essay on ‘cow’ and was unable to solve a Class IV arithmetic problem when asked by a Jammu and Kashmir High Court judge.
The court was hearing a petition in which a teacher was alleged to have obtained a fake degree. Thereafter, the government had ordered a screening test for all ReT teachers appointed in the past 15 years.
In another significant announcement, the Education Minister said his department had decided to relieve teachers of all non-teaching assignments.
Source : The Tribune