SHILLONG: The State has not adhered to the suggestions of the High Level Scrutiny Committee (HLSC) to start fresh recruitment to fill the vacant posts of assistant teachers in government lower primary schools following the education scam.
HLSC headed by E.P Kharbhih as chairman and CCM Mihsil and P. Ryngksai as members had submitted the report related to the recruitment of teachers which took place in 2009-10 to the State Government in July 2013.
The Committee was formed to segregate ‘tainted and non-tainted’ candidates after the direction of the High Court following the findings of the CBI inquiry into the anomalies in teachers’ recruitment.
After some of the ‘tainted teachers’ whose services were terminated filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, the matter was recently referred to the High Court which will examine the reports of HLSC and CBI.
The matter will come up for hearing on Thursday.
The CBI had named the then Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh and others for the anomalies in the recruitment of teachers.
The report, which is available with the media, said in view of the nature and extent of illegalities, the only way out for the Government would be to perhaps cancel the whole selection process and initiate fresh recruitment drive.
The Committee after analysing the CBI report and other documents examined five centres in Tura, Dadenggre, Shillong, Jowai and Amlarem.
As per the report, the number of tainted candidates appointed was 268 in all the five centres and that of the non-tainted was 101.
The break-up of tainted candidates is Tura with 23, Dadenggre 54, Shillong 60, Amlarem 38 and Jowai 93.
The report also examined the case of some petitioners and found that the number of eligible candidates was 25 while 51 others were non-eligible.
The Committee said the marks allotted during the interview were given randomly, especially in the experience column, without adhering to the guidelines in the Government notification of November 24, 2008.
“It is also seen that over-marking and tampering was done mainly in the experience column and viva voce,” the report said.
The Committee also said the method of selection was done in an unprofessional way that had created a lot of confusion and chaos.
The panel also recommended departmental inquiry in other selection centres since it only examined five.
According to the Committee, recruitment in the future should be done by an independent recruitment board consisting of professionals and the process of recruitment should be transparent.
After the advertisement for personal interview in December 2009, 4,928 candidates, of whom 2,929 had SET certificates, appeared for the interview in respective sub divisions. Altogether 4,054 were declared passed.
The number of candidates shortlisted was 1,447.
Altogether 1,163 candidates were declared in the first list, including those who were in the waiting list, against 857 vacancies till 2010.
However, a large number of candidates were not happy with the result and suspected irregularities.
The candidates filed RTI application and the reply indicated irregularities that compelled them to file a petition in the High Court.
Subsequently, the court ordered CBI probe that unearthed large-scale anomalies in the recruitment process.
