Nishant Saxena

The Uttar Pradesh government has taken a major step towards creating a single recruitment body for all teaching institutions in the state. A 12-member committee has been set up to amend the existing Uttar Pradesh Education Services Selection Commission Act, 2019. The new commission will be responsible for selecting teachers and principals for institutions ranging from higher education to basic, technical, and vocational education departments.

According to a senior state education department official, the move is in response to instructions from additional chief secretary (higher education), Sudhir M Bobde. Once the process is completed, the new commission will select teachers and principals for institutions functioning under the state higher education department, secondary, basic, technical, and vocational education departments as well as minority welfare and waqf departments, through a single body.

Currently, recruitment of teachers in government primary schools is done through the UP Basic Shiksha Parishad, while recruitment of teachers and principals in government secondary schools and institutions of the social welfare department is conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission. In government-aided secondary schools, recruitment is done through the UP Secondary Education Service Selection Board, while teachers and principals in government-aided degree colleges are recruited through the UP Higher Education Service Selection Commission.

The 12-member committee has been given the task of preparing a new draft for amending the existing Uttar Pradesh Education Services Selection Commission Act, 2019. The panel will not only prepare the draft of the bill for the new proposed commission, including amendments and new provisions in the Act in both Hindi and English but also get ready a comparative description of the new draft and the present Act as part of the initiative.

Joint director, secondary education, Bhagwati Singh has been appointed as the member secretary of this 12-member committee constituted on May 2. The panel includes Satya Prakash, secretary, Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Service Commission, BL Sharma, assistant director, Directorate of Higher Education, Naval Kishore, deputy secretary, Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Services Selection Board, Ganesh Kumar, joint education director (basic), Anil Bhushan Chaturvedi, secretary, Examination Regulatory Authority, UP, Neeraj Kumar and Man Pal Singh, additional directors (training and employment directorate), Sheshnath Pandey, joint director, minority welfare department, Jagmohan Singh, registrar, Madrasa Education Board besides Lalji Patel and RK Srivastava, deputy directors, technical education, as members.

The formation of a new education services commission started after the formation of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. However, until now, the commission has not come into existence, which has caused a delay in the recruitment of teachers for many new positions. The recruitment of teachers in government-aided secondary schools against 4,163 vacant posts, recruitment against 1,017 posts of assistant professor for which applications have been accepted by the recruitment exam has not yet been conducted, and even the appointment of regular teachers in government-aided Sanskrit schools and primary schools affiliated to government-aided secondary colleges have been stalled.

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