Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 26 Mar: Education Minister Taba Tedir in a press conference on Friday informed that VSATs will be installed in 311 schools, both government and private, in the state by the information & technology ministry “in order to overcome the requirement of some particular subject teachers.”
He also informed that the education department will soon be initiating an ‘Arunachal teachers transfer and posting policy’, whereby online transfer and posting of teachers can be done “to ensure better development and to overcome the difficulties of the transferring process, under the programme ‘Mission Shiksha’, at par with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2021.”
“As the state government has announced 2021 as the ‘Year of Education’, the education department is planning to initiate a roadmap of Arunachal education under ‘Mission Shiksha’, which a programme
under which work will be carried out in phases on six sections of the education system: infrastructure, teachers’ training, technology intervention, ICT and digital initiative, early childhood care and education, continuous performances evaluation system for teachers, and transfer and posting policy,” he added.
Also, to implement the NEP in the state, the department has created a task force under the chairmanship of the education commissioner, in order to develop a report which is estimated to be submitted by 15 April, “and accordingly the new policy will be initiated, which was approved by the government of India earlier,” Tedir said.
He said the NEP would be beneficial for the state “as it provides pre-primary education in the form of early childhood care education, which will be delivered through a significantly expanded and strengthened system of early childhood education institutions for good and strong education foundation of a child.”
Meanwhile, Tedir informed that there are 353 vacant posts of teachers – 80 PGT posts and 273 TGT posts – and said “these vacant posts will be sent to the APPSC for recruitment.”
The minister also issued a clarification with regard to the viral social media video regarding the use of a proxy teacher in East Kameng HQ Seppa. “The lady (in the video) changed her statement during ground investigation by the East Kameng deputy commissioner,” he said.
“She stated that there was no teacher present at the school as the school was under shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the school has reopened since, and the teachers are back to their duty,” he added.
Tedir said that strict action would be taken against teachers indulging in any unfair means, and added that the department has ordered the DCs of all the districts to inspect schools on a regular basis and submit reports.
The minister claimed that, after reintroducing the state board examination for Classes 5 and 8 and pre-board examination for Classes 9 and 12, “the state has witnessed a good result compared to the last few years.”
Regarding the salary hike of 22 percent for vocational teachers, the minister said that the department has sent the issue to the finance department, and due to financial obstacles, it is on hold.
“Hopefully, in coming days, the state’s financial status will be better to initiate the 22 percent salary hike,” he said.
