The Delhi Cabinet on Wednesday decided to make 15,000 guest teachers in government schools across the city permanent, IANS reported. A Bill to regularise the teachers will be passed in the Delhi Assembly during a special session on October 4.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said there were 50,000 guest teachers in the national Capital, of which 17,000 had passed the Central Teacher Eligibility Test. At least 15,000 teachers had also fulfilled other required criteria to be made permanent, he said.
The remaining 35,000 guest teachers will continue to work on rotational basis and can appear for the central exam again, Sisodia added.
Guest teachers “have played a crucial role in some of the flagship programmes, including summer camps, chunauti [competitions] and reading campaigns,” Sisodia, who is also the Delhi education minister, told reporters.
“If the guest teachers who are currently teaching in our schools were to be replaced with fresh candidates, the Directorate of Education would suffer quite a setback to the education reform process and would need to restart the process from scratch,” he said. “If we lose their services, the benefit of their experiences will also be lost.”
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