No order issued on mass transfer of teachers, HRDD clarifies

GANGTOK, 18 July: HRDD officials have denied having issued any notification on mass transfer of teachers. This follows rumours and allegations about the department having notified mass transfer of teachers. A group of teachers had issued a press release yesterday claiming that the Department had notified a mass transfer of teachers and had questioned why the teacher association was keeping silent on it.
Speaking to NOW! today, HRDD officials said that thus far, only those teachers who had applied for transfers citing medical grounds and had submitted the required documents have been given postings accordingly. Also, Headmasters who had been posted to schools where school headmasters were already posted have also been shifted to other schools which have vacancies, officials inform.
The officials further stated that the ad-hoc teachers who had passed their Teachers Eligibility Tests [TETs] exams through the Sikkim Public Service Commission [SPSC] will also be absorbed in various schools taking into consideration the availability of vacancies of Post Graduate Teachers [PGTs] and Graduate Teachers [GTs] and subjects for which they have applied for in the schools. This is especially for the excess teachers available in the East District to other districts, where there is a shortage of teachers, they added.
Sources meanwhile inform that a major transfer was discussed to balance teacher deployment since there are still several schools with many more than the prescribed number of teachers and several schools which are understaffed. No final decision has however been taken on the matter yet, sources inform.