Dear Editor,
With a deep sense of anguish, we, on behalf of the Arunachal Pradesh Teacher Educators Forum (APTEF), would like to draw the attention of the authority concerned towards the pathetic condition of the teacher educators of our state.
Let us go back to the genesis of the teacher education institutions since 1987-88. The district institution of education and training (DIET), Changlang – the first-generation DIET of our state – was established in 1987-88, and later, other DIETs were setup during 2001-2002.
Today, we have 11 DIETs in our state, and the DIET faculties have been imparting pre-service and in-service training, thereby producing several trained teachers and DElEd certificate holders. Currently, there is no dearth of trained teachers in our state. In spite of these, there is no existing recruitment rules (RR) for DIET faculties.
Apparently, our contributions for many years have gone unrecognized and unrewarded; many teacher educators have gone on retirement in the same post without being promoted, because of non- existence of promotional avenues. This state-of-affairs has come to be the most disappointing and embarrassing element in our service life.
Boosting the morale of employees is the need of the hour to keep them optimistic in their service life. We think its remedies lies in career advancement and promotional avenues. In order to make this happen, cadre separation is the precedent step, without which our future career will face darkness and stagnation.
Not only these, our long and dedicated years of service, including possession of MEd and PhD degrees, are apparently seen going to waste.
On 23 June, 2016, considering the welfare of the DIET faculties and realizing the importance of teacher education, the chief minister had issued an instruction for placing the issue of creation of a separate cadre for teacher education in the cabinet meeting. In addition to this, the union HRD ministry has given suggestions after suggestions for immediate cadre separation in our state. However, it is nowhere in sight till today.
Further, we have been approaching the authority concerned for cadre separation of teachers’ education and have been initiating the file movement procedure since the beginning of 2016. In spite of all these, our file is still gathering dust for three years, without any sign of progress, and even after several reminders, they are still adopting a callous attitude and turning a deaf ear to our grievances.
In the light of the facts stated above, we humbly request to the governor, the CM and the education minister to look into the gravity of teachers’ education, thereby opening up the career advancement avenues for teacher educators.
Sincerely,
Vijoy Murtem,
President, APTEF;
Tayon Dai, GS, APTEF