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Amid acute teacher shortage in Jharkhand, many eligible aspirants say left out of recruitment process despite court directions
Even after the Jharkhand High Court's directive and a clear timeline to begin the recruitment of 6,000 upper primary school teachers, the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) has invited only around 2,700 candidates for document verification.
The process was meant to address the acute shortage of teachers across the state, but has triggered fresh conflict.
Over 500 candidates, many of whom claim to have met the eligibility criteria, have been disqualified without a clear explanation. All of them belong to the Science category, whose document verification began in the first week of June, as per the High Court's instructions.
One of the affected candidates, Yogendra Vishwakarma, from a Backward Class I community, told The Indian Express that he scored 58 percent, well above the required 34 percent for his category, but was still not invited for document verification.
The same goes for Chandan Kumar, who secured 57 percent against the 40 percent required for the general category. Meanwhile, Yamuna Kumar Das, from a Scheduled Caste community, said he obtained 58.4 percent, compared to the 32 percent cutoff for SCs and STs candidates.
'We waited for years for this recruitment. Now, despite qualifying, we're being pushed out without reason. We will fight this legally,' said Vishwakarma.
As per the High Court order, a total of 15,001 upper primary teachers are to be appointed, 5,000 each for Science, Arts and Language. The current issue pertains only to the Science category, where the verification process was initiated first.
When contacted, JSSC member Pratap Singh acknowledged that fewer candidates were invited for verification in the science stream. 'The number of qualifying candidates in science was lower than the total number of posts available. Around 2,700 candidates were called, and the process has been completed for Science. However, we are open to reviewing cases,' he said.
He added that the final merit list will clarify many concerns and if any genuinely qualified candidate has been left out, they will consider calling them for document verification in a second list.
Singh also clarified that while the commission is trying to adhere to the Court's timeline, it may overshoot the deadline by up to two months due to the scale and complexity of the recruitment process. 'Currently, verification is underway for the social science category. Language and Arts subjects will be taken up afterward,' he said.
This development comes after the High Court, in April, ordered the JSSC to expedite the recruitment of 26,000 school teachers, directing it to complete the appointment of upper primary teachers by the first week of July and primary teachers by mid-September.
Earlier, during the April hearing, Chief Justice M. S. Ramachandra Rao had warned against delays, appointing the Attorney General to oversee the process. The Court's intervention came after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by economist and activist Dr. Jean Drèze and co-petitioner Paran Amitava, who highlighted Jharkhand's chronic teacher shortage and under-enforcement of the Right to Education Act, 2009.
The Court that time also had asked the JSSC to submit a compliance report by June 30.
More than 8,000 schools in Jharkhand continue to be run by a single teacher, despite the RTE mandate that each school must have at least two teachers and a pupil-teacher ratio not exceeding 30:1.
Shubham Tigga hails from Chhattisgarh and studied journalism at the Asian College of Journalism. He previously reported in Chhattisgarh on Indigenous issues and is deeply interested in covering socio-political, human rights, and environmental issues in mainland and NE India.
Presently based in Pune, he reports on civil aviation, other transport sectors, urban mobility, the gig economy, commercial matters, and workers' unions.
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