RTI probe: Recruitment of 7,654 teachers under scanner
Tuesday, 25/09/2012
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MANSA: The recruitment of 7,654 teachers by the state government has come under scrutiny after the education department claims to have no clear information about the experience of any selected candidate.
The departments has failed to submit details sought under the Right To Information (RTI) Act on the ground that it has no clear record of the teachers’ experience that was counted for hiring them all. After much dilly-dallying on releasing the information, the state council of education research and training (SCERT) director had asked the RTI applicant to look for details on the website.
Via an advertisement on September 23, 2009, the state government had sought 316 assistant librarians in the beginning of the process to fill 7,654 posts of trained graduate teacher (TGT), vocational t eacher, lecturer, assistant librarian, library restorer, and other teaching employee. The advertisement specified that for the post of assistant librarian, 40% marks were for matriculation and diploma in library science, 10% for higher qualification (BLib and MLib) and another 10% for experience.
Suspecting malpractice in the recruitment of librarians for government secondary schools, Rajinder Singh of Mansa filed an RTI application in May 2011, seeking from the office of the director of public instruction (secondary education) the copies of the experience certificates and other relevant record of the selected candidates. He wanted details such as the candidates’ bank account and employee provident fund (EPF) numbers, name of the qualifying board, and the registration branch and authority.
On November 5 last year, it was highlighted how the DPI (secondary) had given a bizarre reply to applicant Rajinder Singh, by maintaining that the information lay with the SCERT director. Sadhu Singh Randhawa, the-then DPI (elementary education), was then arrested on a charge of striking a deal with elementary teacher union president in the selection of candidates who had cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET).
On October 5, the case was disposed in the court of state information commissioner Kulbir Singh.
In November last year again, the applicant sought the same information from the office of the SCERT director.
This time he even wanted to look at the second counselling record of the recruitment of assistant librarians. This is what he found: a candidate low on merit was in top section of the waitlist.
BOGUS CREDENTIALS EXPOSED, MANY FIRED
“Candidates with bogus credentials took many of the 7,654 posts, and many were, later, expelled after the media had exposed them,” said Rajinder Singh. “The authorities, including the SCERT director, replied that they didn’t have clear information on the teachers’ experience record, but when in April this year, I filed my second appeal with the state information tribunal (SIT), the SCERT director submitted that my query was incomplete.”
“A candidate with a score of 36.43 made it to the waitlist of the second counselling that was on July 9, 2011, even when the candidate was not on the waitlist on the Internet,” said the RTI applicant.
“Candidates scoring below 59.23 were not to be called for second counselling for the post of assistant librarian.”
How is it possible that one part of the information is with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the nodal agency, another with the DPI (S) and another with the DPI (elementary), who has claimed already that the information is with the SCERT di rector, the applicant has questioned.
“The court of the state information commissioner simply disposes of the cases without satisfying the applicant,” said Rajinder Singh. “Where is our right to information?”
