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Secretariat protest on July 29 to seek appointment of permanent high school English teachers
PSC rank holders allege government is trying to bypass contempt proceedings by ordering creation of temporary posts
High school English rank holders and representatives of school parent-teacher associations (PTA) will take out a march and stage a dharna in front of the Secretariat on July 29 in protest against the State government’s failure to appoint permanent English teachers in high schools, despite a High Court judgment three years ago.
It was in March that the then Chief Justice A.J. Desai and judge V.G. Arun gave four weeks’ time to the government to comply with the court judgment in 2021.
In 2021, presidents of parent-teacher associations of two schools had gone to court seeking appointment of at least one English teachers in government schools with at least three divisions and 15 periods for English. They wanted that English be considered a language subject rather than a core subject as per the amendments made to Kerala Education Rules (KER) in 2002.
‘Decline in standard’
When English was considered a core subject, the post of high school English teacher was sanctioned in schools that had a minimum of five divisions. However, 20 years after the amendment to KER, it still was not being considered a language subject and so was taught by teachers who had no prescribed qualification to teach English, resulting in a decline in standard of English among students, the petitioners said.
The court had then directed the government to create a cadre of English teachers from the academic year 2021-22 onwards.
Though the government agreed to implement the High Court order, it had failed to do so, alleged the PSC rank holders. It was while facing contempt proceedings that the government was given four weeks’ time to implement the order in March this year. However, earlier this month, the government issued an order that high school English teacher posts be created in government and aided schools on a temporary basis and teachers appointed on daily wage-basis, said the English teachers.
The court had directed that permanent teachers be appointed to teach English as in the case of languages such as Malayalam and Hindi. However, the government was creating temporary posts for English teachers, when it was not doing the same for other languages, said the English teachers.
Proposed merger
The government also claimed that the proposed high school-higher secondary merger was another reason for not creating permanent posts for English teachers. However, how could the merger have an impact only on English and not on other subject teachers. Appointment of teachers for other high school subjects were continuing in many districts, they pointed out.
The Secretariat march and dharna on Monday are a token strike to press for a correction in the government stance and appointment of permanent English teachers in every high school that does not have an English teacher, they said.
If a favourable decision was not taken by August 9, the deadline given by the court for a final decision on the matter, parents, PTA representatives and teachers of schools without English teachers would go on an indefinite protest, said the teachers.
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