Achik Organisation for Social Welfare (AOSW) has urged the Sub-Divisional School Education Officer (SDSEO) of East Garo Hills to direct the headmaster of Rongrong Union Deficit Upper Primary School to re-advertise the post of assistant teacher in the school as a candidate who was selected for the post in the earlier interview had not completed the Meghalaya Teacher Eligibility Test (MTET).
“It was advertised on February 24, 2022 by the headmaster of the said school where 13 candidates had applied and nine candidates had appeared for the interview. A person without MTET was illegally recruited and MTET certificate holders were rejected. In the advertisement it was written that the last date of application submission was on March 11, 2022 and the tentative interview was on March 16, 2022 and first preference had been made for the local candidate. In accordance to the preference made for the local candidate, there was a local MTET certificate holder who was rejected and a person without MTET from a neighboring village who got her Diploma in Elementary Education result on May 2, 2022 long after the last date of submission of application given in the advertisement and the issuance of the mark-sheet started from May 31, 2022 long after the interview was conducted,” AOSW general secretary Premiar N. Sangma said in a statement issued today.
Sangma said that such bogus and unfair means of recruitment could have been done through bribing of the authority. “Nevertheless, it was abruptly restrained by lots of complaints by the rejected candidates and NGOs from continuing. It is still being kept in vague intervention. This cannot be kept pending in the field of education,” he added.
“The authority of the Education Department is still neglecting the system of education if there is a long pending vacancy in any school. Imagine how much loss it will be for the students of the schools. Keeping the schools blank without teachers, bogus and rigging recruitment of the teachers without the quality of the teacher and system of dynasty succession are the indicators of decline for the education of our State or country that will account on the data and statistics. It is not a profound hope for the upcoming generations but it is a nagging fear that decline of the education system and getting jobs by the poor students of Garo Hills is inevitable,” AOSW said.
The organisation has further complained that there are too many failures in filling up the vacancies in many other schools and other government departments. “In most of the departments, decision on government jobs is concentrated only on political leaders, leading to personality cult and dynastic succession system that most of the job vacancies are being filled or recruited by the political leaders and officials of their own family members, children or relatives without advertising the vacancies. Even though there are now many graduates and qualified students who belong to poor families, they never get chances of getting jobs and remain unemployed,” the AOSW further said.