HRDD clarification of SSA guidelines and quality issues

GANGTOK, 02 Feb: The Sarva Shiksha Abhayan (SSA) is a centrally sponsored scheme. It is a flagship program of the Government of India. It is being implemented in the States by the State authorities but it has its own design and implementation features mandated by the Central Government.
It is now redesigned to be totally in synchronization with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
Teacher qualifications, training and recruitment are covered in great detail in the framework of implementation.
The Government of Sikkim is desirous of implementing the said Act totally. This will be the bulwark of the Government’s total quality education mission. Hence there can be little compromise in this respect. The future human capital of our State is at stake and the caliber of teachers is central to the process of high quality delivery. In view of the above, the HRDD had placed advertisements in December 2011 seeking applications for employment under the guidelines set by SSA. The roles were advertised as being ad hoc and having a one year tenure, similar to those advertised in 2010. This form of recruiting is in line with the tradition of upgrading the skills of the teachers and also ensuring that the teachers meet with the qualification criterion as laid down by the SSA framework. In this design qualification criterion will not only be met but also positioning of teachers to remote schools which perennially suffer from lack of good teachers.
Hence more than 4,509 candidates were given the opportunity to face the interview this year.
It is therefore not possible to deny so many candidates from different Districts of the State an equal opportunity to the said jobs for the sake of a few when it was very clear that there would be a relook at the process when the appointments were given in March 2011.
It is understood that there are a few persons who are not desirous of following due process but would like to take the matter into their own hands by going on a fast. We sincerely hope and advise them not to be misguided thus. They should give up their fast. They need to wait for the result of the interviews in which so many young graduates and others have given their time based on the terms published.
We would also like to place on record that those who are on dharna have also taken the interview for the ad hoc posts for the current year. In fact, they have a better chance of selection compared to first time candidates since their past experience has been given due weight in terms of bonus marks in the interview. Thereby the department has duly recognized the service rendered by them by granting them bonus marks in accordance with the number of years they served and at the same time has given equal opportunity to many other qualified local candidates to compete for the ad hoc posts.
One should understand and appreciate the fact that such opportunities cannot be restricted to a selected few but to all eligible local candidates, in the interest of fairness and justice.