The Separate Class of ReT Teachers

This is in reference to an article titled ‘The Separate Class of ReT Teachers’ by Habibullah Shah published in a local daily on November 30th.

The author has very beautifully portrayed the plight of ReT community especially the salary issue by referring to the selling of kidney by an ReT as the highest form of protest. However, the author’s inclination towards ReT community has made his write up a biased one and in fact  he seems to have little knowledge about the facts and figures. He has in the article credited the overhauling of education system at the grass root level to ReT community ignoring the fact that the state government has clubbed the defunct schools purposefully opened in the remote areas for the very simple reason that there were teachers in those schools but no students. 

He has read the newspaper carrying the news that an ReT has decided to sell his kidney. Has he not gone through the newspaper bearing the news, 32 schools clubbed with Higher Secondary Schools in Poonch? He has made a mention of duties being performed by ReTs other than teaching like election duty or census. These duties are not being specifically performed by ReTs only. In fact, the entire teacher community has been doing this job even before the inception of ReT scheme in 2000. This extra duty does not make the ReT community a special one and entitle them to a special favour. These duties have been entrusted to the entire teacher community by RTE act and not to any one community in particular. The author further advocates ReT community by saying that they feel insecure about their future. A question can be asked, why to be so insecure if it is being said that no ReT will be expelled from the department  even if he fails in the test. 

The use of words  ‘uncertainty’ and ‘strangeness’ speaks nothing but the authors inclination  towards a particular community. He is of the view that court order is being misinterpreted. Being an Assistant Professor in the Directorate of Distance Education University of Kashmir, he needs not to be informed that a candidate doing a distance education course has to attend some contact programmes at least twice a year. 

If an ReT was performing his duties, where from did he get the time to attend those contact classes. What is wrong in it if an ReT, who was performing his duties and side by side completed a distance education course, is being asked to prove the validity of his degree. 

On the one hand the author demands a respect due to a teacher from the civil society and from the administration of state government and on the other hand he himself calls a teacher ‘simply a teacher’. He may please explain what does he mean by teacher and ‘a simple teacher’. The author has given the example of contractual teachers of Delhi and the para teachers of Himachal Pradesh to favour that the services of ReTs be made transferable. Let me make it clear to him that the contractual teachers in Jammu and Kashmir appointed in 2006 are also drawing a salary of 8000 per month because they  were appointed under a proper mechanism at district level, screened first on the basis of academic qualification and later interviewed. Giving the example of Delhi and Himachal Pradesh for making the services of ReTs transferable cannot be taken as a precedence for the simple reason that here the competition for engagement of ReTs was restricted to Village level and even Mohallah level on the pretax that a local teacher will be available to students regularly and will be able to understand them for being one among the locality. 

General line teachers selected prior 2013 as per author were selected on 80% merit and ReTs on 100% merit, might have shocked everyone and I am no exception. If merit, as per the author, means academic qualification and if this be taken as a rod to measure the credibility of recruitment agencies, Public Service Commission of Jammu and Kashmir, the highest recruitment agency of the state, would fall at the bottom for appointing  lecturers, assistant surgeons, assistant professors etc on mere 60% merit because the 40% of interview are not counted as per the author. Admitting that every permanent teacher in the state is governed by JKCSR, the author has himself put a cross on the five years service inclusion of ReTs. Unknowingly, he has not supported ReT community here but stood by what Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Regulations say. At times, the author pleads not to classify the teacher community but has himself made classes like General Line Teachers (SSRB), General Line Teachers (ReTs) and General line teachers (FAT)

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