The state school education department is going to reduce the time span of the appointment of primary teachers, minister Partha Chatterjee said in the Assembly today. Replying to a set of questions from CPI-M MLA, Anisur Rahman, the minister said that the proposed system will be based on talent and eligibility

The present system comprises steps like verification, personality test and choice of school which prolongs the appointment process, the minister said.

A number of cases pertaining to appointment are in the courts which does not expedite the process, he added. After the minister had replied to Rahman’s questions that 42,621 primary teachers have been appointed in 2017-18 while 13,295 posts remains vacant, the CPI-M MLA said that his daughter, a post graduate in geography wants to know how much more qualification she would have to acquire to get a teaching job. I wonder if she is so qualified why she is not getting a job, the minister said.

The minister seems to be irked at why a person with such qualification is not getting a job, senior CPI-M leader, Sujan Chakraborty said. But the fact remains that there is such a dearth of jobs that for 6,000 group D posts lakhs of application have been received and some of the applicants have completed their PhD, he said. “You have to keep in mind that we have the task of clearing the garbage which has acumulated over 34 years,” the minister said referring to the Left Front regime.”

“There are some problems which are not looked into such as students unwilling to go away from their home districts and with such reluctance, the problem which has been mentioned will not go away,” he said. “I wonder why highly educated candidates are applying for low grade jobs,” said Dulal Bar who has shifted allegiance from the Congress to the BJP. As a primary teacher, I got an appointment letter, but of late messages on mobile phones are informing candidates of their appointment, he said.

“Messages are an expeditious and reliable method of conveying the information, the minister said. And as for yourself, you cannot keep faith on one party,” he pointed out referring to Bar’s recent change of party allegiance and his early association with TMC.