Manipur Education Minister Thounaojam Basanta Kumar on Thursday asserted that new parameters have been set up for posting and transfer of government teachers in Manipur which are residential address, gender and age group of the teachers.
The education minister stated the same while responding to the disapproval policy cut motion moved on Demand number 10 - education by opposition members MLAs K Ranjit Singh, Th Lokeshwar Singh and Surjakumar Okram during the evening session of the 3rd session of 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
The minister further stated the new transfer and posting parameters had been set up to tackle the chronic shortages of government teachers in the state. He maintained that consideration for the residential address of the teachers to give more preference to teachers who are nearer to the posting areas. The cases of teachers not joining the posted schools will drastically reduce with this parameter, he added.
“Since 70 per cent of teachers in the state are women. Gender and age determination of teachers while posting will help assess risk and approve physical eligibility of the teachers for the new transfer”, he said.
He exuded confidence that the new transfer and posting parameters will immensely benefit in building a steady academic momentum and urged all stakeholders to approve the new transfer and posting norms.
The education minister highlighted that government schools in Manipur are running on 60 per cent total teaching staff. At least 7,000 out of the 17,000 government teachers required in the state are still vacant, he added. Basanta Kumar pointed out that the shortage correlates with posting and failure to timely promote qualified teachers.
“Teacher’s promotion in Manipur had been on the backburner for nearly 15-20 years, in short, it is another case of overdue negligence”, he added.
As such, the education minister claimed 50 assistant headmasters, six vice-principals and 24 senior lecturers had been promoted to posts of headmasters and principals respectively.
He further appealed to various stakeholders to widen the spectrum of school improvement and not rush to the streets over solvable issues. Proper cleansing of the systematic and administrative system must be the foremost target before any infrastructural improvement, Basanta Kumar added.
“It will take more than a year to correct a system which had been disregarded for over a decade”, he said.
The education minister further stated that the Manipur government’s ‘School Fagathansi Mission’ had been implemented in two phases. He pointed out that under the first phase, Rs 50 crore had been sanctioned for construction of 32 science labs and libraries, and in second phase, Rs 20 crore, out of Rs 44.815 crore, had been sanctioned for construction of various infrastructures.
He mentioned that 1,932 different works for elementary education in the state under Annual Work Plan and budget sanctioned by Samagra Shiksha, Ministry of Education for schools had been approved. A total of 61 different works out of the sanctioned projects have been completed and the rest is underway, he added.
“Command and Control centre at RMSA office will be inaugurated by next month, the centre will link the entire education system of Manipur on the digital platform”, he said.
Regarding accounts raised by MLA Surjakumar Okram on issues at Dhanamanjuri University, the minister replied that the Manipur government is working timely to maintain the decorum of the university.
“Academic Credit bank has also been implemented in the university”, he said.
