TURA: In what appears to be a clear case of nepotism and blatant violation of Education policy guidelines by a sitting school management committee with regard to the appointment of teachers, the members of the committee running the Paham Nabojyoti Adhoc Secondary School in Tikrikilla have allegedly appointed a teacher from Assam sans conducting the mandatory interview while the decision came as a bolt from the blue for three locals who had applied for the same position.
The educationists and locals of the area have given the thumbs down to the modus operandi of the management, who allegedly ‘twisted’ the selection process to favour a particular candidate, in this case one from Dhubri, Assam.
Following an advertisement issued by the school for the post of a Science teacher, three local candidates had applied for the position alongside the lone applicant from Dhubri.
While two of the local candidates had similar qualifications as that of the candidate from Assam — Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Education (B.Sc/B.Ed), the third local candidate had a master’s degree in Science (M.Sc/B.Ed).
An interview to select the candidate, which was scheduled for the beginning of 2020, was cancelled by the committee citing “unavoidable circumstances”.
“With no interview conducted, the committee has now suddenly informed about the appointment of a teacher which has gone to the candidate from Dhubri district of Assam. How can this be possible? On what grounds have they appointed him and why were the interview and proper norms not followed,” questioned members of the teachers’ fraternity of Paham.
There also are allegations of bribery and corruption levelled against the members of the management committee over the teacher’s appointment and locals are calling for a thorough scrutiny of the appointment by the state government.
The rejected candidates have dared the school committee to come clean on the issue by conducting an open interview in the presence of Education department officials.
Education officials reveal that this is a very common trend in the plains of West Garo Hills where outsiders allegedly bribe committee members to obtain jobs and gradually settle down in the state.
“This has become a serious problem for the plains region. There are a number of people from Assam who have got teaching jobs in upper primary schools in the area and gradually go on to make their identity cards in Meghalaya, giving them state citizen status. Government should do something about this menace,” pointed out a select group of educationists from the area citing anonymity.