Rising People's Party
Leaders of Rising People's Party at a press conference (File)

Dimapur: The Rising People’s Party (RPP) alleged anomalies in the 2012 graduate teachers (GT) seniority list in Nagaland’s school education department.

In a release on Thursday, the RPP said many primary teachers have managed to “sneak” into the 2012 GT seniority list thereby victimising the genuine graduate teachers.

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It said different yardsticks were used in drawing up the 2012 GT seniority list.

The party noted that regularisation being the yardstick for drawing up the GT seniority list, a student who was previously under the tutelage of an adhoc teacher is now senior in the seniority list as when the student decided to enter the profession, his entry point was as a ‘regularised teacher’.

The adhoc teacher is now way below in the seniority list because he or she was regularised after the former student, it said.

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“Such is the situation in the state’s ‘dirtiest department’ that former students now outrank their former teachers in the seniority list due for promotion as drawn up by the school education department,” it said.

Sympathizing the grievances of the All Nagaland Graduate Teachers’ Forum, the RPP has extended support to its demand for “one-time” measure to resolve the “promotion impasse” in the state school education department.

 The graduate teachers’ forum demanded that all graduate teachers who have completed 30 years of service should be promoted to assistant headmasters and headmasters with immediate effect.

The RPP said no graduate teachers have been promoted to the 300 posts of assistant headmasters and headmasters for the last 10 years because of the “contentious 2012 graduate teachers’ seniority list”.

“This is the main reason why eastern Nagaland has suffered so much in terms of education resulting in the perpetual backwardness of the region,” the party said.

Quoting the Nagaland Board of School Education website, the RPP pointed out that the HSLC pass percentage in eastern Nagaland in 2013 was 9.49%, it was 14.72% in 2014, 11.46% in 2015, 08.46% in 2016, 12% in 2017, 11.75% in 2018, 14.75% in 2019, 16.75% in 2020, 24.25% in 2021 and 15.5% in 2022.  

The RPP said the commissioner and secretary and the principal director of the department and the United Democratic Alliance coalition government are very much aware of the man-made disease plaguing the department but they prefer to hide like the proverbial Ostrich in the sand.

“Perhaps a mass agitation should wake up the Ostrich,” it added.