AGARTALA, Sep 1 (TIWN): Even after 30 days of Anita Karwal, Additional Secretary of MRHD’s letter, Tripura’s lameduck School Education Department yet to make its stand clear on the untrained in-service teachers at Elementary Level regarding their requisite qualifications to be acquired by 31st March 2019 . MHRD in its letter vide D.O.No.17-2/2017-EE.17 dated 3rd August 2017 clearly stated,"It is reiterated that this will be the last chance to acquire the requisite minimum professional qualifications. Any teacher in the aforementioned schools , who does not have the minimum qualifications mandated under RTE Act 2009, would not be allowed to continue in-service beyond 1st April 2019 and procedure for dismissal shall be initiated against such teachers " Following this School Education Department of Tripura (probably the only govt in the country) sought clarification from MHRD regarding the said letter .

Now 30 days passed and still thousands of teachers in Tripura and even the HMs/AHMs/Principals are not sure what exactly they should do as nothing clearly is being instructed by the School Education Department , Govt of Tripura.In the MHRDs letter issued on 3rd August 2019 following instructions are clearly given :-

       1)For creation of database of untrained elementary teacher for D.El.Ed., there will be an On-line Portal of NIOS which will have the followingoptions :-

a) Login/Registration by the State Coordinator

      b) Login/Registration by the Individual Principal of the School

       2) State Coordinator will enter the entire database of untrained in-service teachers (in Private and Govt Schools) on theportal especially prepared by NIOS for this purpose . This portal will also be utilized to monitor the progress of training in each State/UTs.

      3)For teachers in Private Schools , a Certificate from the Principal would be taken to ensure that the teacher is serving in the school . These certificates will be collected by the State/UT

     4) Once the above information is provided to the State Coordinator then NIOS will provide the following to the individual Principal for entering into thesystem i.e., School Code and password . Once the School Principal receives the Password and the School Code sent by the NIOS through SMS then the School Principal will login into the system for online Registration of Untrained Teachers .

   5) Registration of unqualified untrained teachers on NIOS portal should be completed between 16.08.2017 to 15.09.2017 by the State Coordinator/School Principal . The Education Secretaries of State/Uts areexpected to ensureand facilitate this .

However, a top level official of the state Secretariat told TIWN on Sunday night," No HM/Principal is yet been asked to Register through On-line portal of NIOS by the State Coordinator . Quite amazingly all HMs/Principals have been asked to send the list of all untrained teachers to the School Education Department . Out of confusion HMs/Principals have even started to send the list of untrained Graduate/Post-Graduate teachers of Secondary Education too as nothing is specified by the state govt . "

It is to be mentioned here that the Director of Education(S) Th. Kirankumar ,Directorate of Education(S) ,Manipur vide No.5/2/1/17-DE(S)Pt: dated 22/08/2017 has clearly stated ," All concerned teachers /Principals/Headmasters/Mistresses are advised to open e-mail accounts before coming totheDirectorate forregistration ."

Manipur Govt has also stated ," U-DISE Codes of schools in the State are available at the official website of the Department at www.manipureducation.gov.in . Principals/Headmasters/Mistresses of schools which are not yet allotedU-DISECodes areadvised to obtain U-DISE Code from the office of the SPD/SSA, SMA , Manipur . "

But in Tripura state Elementary Education Department has sought clarification from the MHRD regarding its recent letter . Meanwhile , the officials of School Education Department, Govt of Tripura are making the situation even more confusing as in various meetings now being held across the state the officials invariably saying ," Those teachers who have completed 6 months CETE training have to complete 2 years training as the CETE training of 6 months won't be accepted by the MHRD . "

But the sameofficials remain silent when the teachers having completed 6 months CETE training ask them ," What will the govt do with those teachers who have been promoted to the post of Headmaster/Asst. Headmaster of High , Higher Secondary and Senior Basic Schools or even to the post of the Inspector of School with only 6 months CETE training ."

The officials are giving these instruction verbally but nothing is given in written format. Again HMs/AHMs/Principals have been told by the Department officials that untrained teachers are to enroll their names on their own while the MHRD letter clearly states that untrained unqualified teachers can not register on their own , registration process can only be done through govt of State/UTs  .

   Thus, time is running  out fast but due to the inefficiency and incompetency of School Education Department officials led by Tapan Chakraborty the untrained teachers are still uncertain about their future .

Meanwhile National Institute for Open Schooling(NIOS) has specified that Graduate Teachers working in Elementary Level don't need to reappear for H S Examination for improvement of marks . NIOS in its website categorically states," If the teacher is Graduate then improvement of marks at Class XII is not applicable ." But School Education Department of Tripura is yet to clarify about this. As a result of it HMs/AHMs/Principals , out of confusion , don't know actually what they have to do.