Festive gift for guest teachers

New Delhi: In a Diwali bonanza to the thousands of guest teachers employed with various schools in the national capital, the Delhi Government on Wednesday approved regularisation of 15,000 guest teachers working in its schools. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that the bill will be passed during a special Assembly session on October 4.

Of the 17,000 guest teachers in government schools, 15,000 will be benefited by the move while the remaining 2,000, who did not meet the criteria, will continue to work as guest teachers, Mr Sisodia said. “Approximately 15,000 guest teachers are teaching in the schools of the Directorate of Education (DoE) and have played a crucial role in some of the flagship programmes including Summer Camps, Chunauti, and Reading Campaign,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said after the Cabinet meeting.

“The Cabinet approved regularisation of these teachers and a draft Legislative proposal has been formulated, which will be brought in the ensuing Delhi Vidhan Sabha Session to be convened on October 4 for approval,” he added.

Mr Sisodia said the guest teachers played a crucial role in Delhi government’s education reform process.

“If the guest teachers who are currently teaching in our schools were to be replaced with fresh candidates, DoE would suffer quite a setback to our education reform process and we would need to re-start the process from scratch,” he said. He said guest teachers had been appointed following a procedure and according to merit list and that the 15,000 teachers had passed the Central Teacher Eligibility Test. 

Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta, however, said that the bill approved in the Kejriwal cabinet to regularise guest teachers is devoid of administrative, financial and legal sanctions.