15,000 guest teachers to be regular

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a Bill proposing regularisation of 15,000 guest teachers employed in government schools.

The Bill will now be presented in the Assembly on October 4. The move has come in the wake of over 27,000 posts for permanent teachers lying vacant for years.

These guest teachers are engaged with schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. According to senior government officials, the Cabinet approved regularisation of these teachers and a draft legislative proposal has been formulated, which will be brought to the Assembly.

"Approximately 15,000 guest teachers are teaching in schools of the Directorate of Education (DoE) and have played a crucial role in some of the flagship programmes, including summer camps, Chunauti, and reading campaign," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said after the Cabinet meeting.

In an order to bridge the learning deficit, said Sisodia, they have grouped students in Class VI-VIII by level. So even in the same class, differential teaching will happen in separate groups – Pratibha, Nishtha, and Neo-readers.

All TGT teachers, including guest teachers, have been trained over the last two years on differential pedagogy.

The Education Minister also claimed that Delhi was the first to notify 'Learning Outcomes' based on the NCERT initiatives.

"All our teachers, including guest teachers, have been trained in how the classroom teaching-learning processes would change with this approach.

Ongoing training for this is being conducted in the form of day-long workshops for teachers every alternative month," he said. Apart from the training programmes, guest teachers have, over the years, acquired skills and competencies essential to working in government schools, he said.

In an affidavit filed by the Directorate of Education (DoE) in the Delhi High Court (HC) earlier this year, it said the total sanctioned positions of teachers in the city government schools as on January 1 was 59,409. But only 51,763 positions had been filled, taking the deficient percentage to 12.87 per cent.

The figures of the sanctioned strength, however, excluded Vice-Principals and Principals of schools.

The DoE stated that the total sanctioned positions of teachers in the city government schools as on January 1 was 59,409. But only 51,763 positions have been filled by the DoE taking the deficient percentage to 12.87 %. However, figures of the sanctioned strength exclude vice principals and principals of the schools.