Teachers need medical, criminal clearance for job

Kolkata: The state education department will make police verification and medical test mandatory for candidates while recruiting teachers. The department will also come out with a transfer policy to streamline and simplify the process of transfer among the teachers in state-run schools. Education minister Partha Chatterjee announced this on the sidelines of a programme organised by West Bengal Trinamul Primary Teacher’s Association on Sunday.

“We have decided to check the antecedents of the teachers through police verification. Their final recruitment will be confirmed after medical test,” Mr Chatterjee said. “The transfer policy will be framed maintaining transparency in the process,” he added.

Mr Chatterjee added that lady teachers would be given priority when it comes to pleas of transfers. He made it clear that pleas for transfers immediately after joining services will not be entertained. “No transfers will be made through influential middlemen,” Mr Chatterjee said. The education department passed a bill empowering the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education to affect the transfer process. “The governing council will no longer be involved in the transfer process,” an education department official said.

“This will bring down allegations of favouritism in transfer,” he added. Mr Chatterjee said that the department was mulling the process of knowledge - sharing in schools. “We will examine which schools are imparting quality education and will share their teachers’ experiences with other schools,” he said.