Ashutosh Kumar Jha, a resident of Saharsa in Bihar, had been a private school teacher for 10 years when the government introduced a two-year diploma in elementary education programme in 2017 and mandated training for all untrained teachers.
Jha was one of the nearly 13 lakh teachers to have enrolled in the one-time open and distance learning course. But on applying for new jobs, he found out that his diploma had been declared invalid. “I am neither able to teach in any private school nor in any government school. The government has done injustice to us,” he told Newslaundry, protesting against the central government outside the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. Thousands like him the house of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Nearly 15 lakh candidates had registered for the diploma course, launched in 2017 for untrained teachers teaching from class one to eight across government, government-aided or private schools. It was organised by the National Council for Teacher Education through the National Institute of Open Schooling or NIOS. Prakash Javadekar, then education minister, said that 12.8 lakh teachers had deposited the fees of Rs 13,000 for the diploma, including Rs 4,500 for the first year, Rs 6,000 for the second year and an examination fee of Rs 2,500. Thus, the government collected a total of Rs 1,664 crore from the candidates.
The diploma course’s classes by the NIOS were held for 18 months between September 2017 and March 2019, On completion of the course, multiple petitions raised questions over the course being short of the mandated 24-month term. But while various high courts upheld its validity, the Supreme Court declared the ODL course “invalid” in November last year.
Notably, at present, the NIOS offers regular classes for diploma in elementary education.
What led to Supreme Court deeming it invalid?
Five months after the first batch completed the programme from the NIOS in March 2019, their contemporaries in private institutions raised questions over the NIOS course being six months short of the mandated 24-month term.
The NIOS’s ODL course was run for 18 months – from September 2017 to March 2019 – although its certificate, documents and government ads stated that it was a two-year long programme. In August 2019, a plea was filed in the Patna High Court by students enrolled in a similar course in private institutions challenged theODL course, saying it did not complete 24-month training.
Soon, Chandra Bhushan Sharma, then president of NIOS, released a video defending the course. He said some people were “spreading misconceptions”, but the course was “recognised across the country”. Sharma said that the programme had been run on the request of the ministry of human resources and had the approval of the National Council for Teacher Education. He also emphasised that the duration of the course was two years but they had worked out a way to complete it by March 31, 2019.
Sharma told Newslaundry that they “worked very hard for the course. I am very hurt, the work we did for the benefit of our country has been completely reversed. Prakash Javadekar gave the opportunity to teachers to complete the course worth Rs 2-2.5 lakh in just Rs 13,000.”
He said “it is definitely a matter of investigation as to who took the decision that this course will be invalid. The solution is to go to the Supreme Court and give the right argument that this degree is valid because it has been obtained from a government institution.”
The NCTE defended the course in the court. It emphasised that there were no shortcomings and that it was valid. In January 2020, the Patna High Court also ruled that the course was valid. Based on its judgement, the Tripura High Court and the Uttarakhand High Court also backed the NIOS course. Following this, many NIOS diploma-holders secured jobs across different states.
In September 2023, however, candidates enrolled at private institutions in Uttarakhand moved the Supreme Court, which took note that the course had run for 18 months and deemed it “invalid” in its ruling in November.
Nandan Bohra, one of the teachers who is also the president of the protesting candidates’ body in Uttarakhand, said the course “was left out of the Gazette of India due to administrative errors which became the reason for our defeat in the Supreme Court”. He also wrote a letter to the President in December demanding the publication of the course in the gazette but to no avail.
‘Only about 15% got govt jobs’
Bohra told Newslaundry that despite the government providing the diploma course, the trained teachers had to seek the help of high courts in several states for the degree’s recognition. After the court orders, about two lakh NIOS diploma candidates secured jobs in government primary schools across the country.
Of the nearly 13 lakh candidates who enrolled for the course, only two lakh or 15 percent could reap its benefit, the “remaining are still wandering in courts and are on the streets. We are tired of protesting, but no one listens”, said Bohra.
Abhishek Kumar, who hails from Bakhtiyarpur of Patna district in Bihar, said he passed diploma in elementary education from NIOS in 2019 and the Central Teacher Eligibility Test in 2021. And now he works in a private school for Rs 5,000 monthly salary. “We are four brothers. I have to look after the education expenses of both the younger brothers. What can be done with Rs 5,000 these days," said Kumar, who is purportedly facing financial difficulties.
Kumar said that the diploma course was of 18 months, whereas their certificate and form and even result document states that it is a two-year course. “Just as we have studied for 18 months, we could have continued for the next six months as well. After doing everything for so long, our degree has been declared useless.”
Government ads, Javadekar’s promise
In 2017, as the government rolled out the diploma course, its advertisements graced the pages of national dailies with a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On August 20, 2017, an advertisement published in Hindi daily Dainik Jagran said that it was the “last chance” to register for the course. It said that after 31 March 2019, untrained teachers without the diploma certificate will not be able to teach and with the certification they could “get a job anywhere in the country”. The ads also mentioned that the course was approved by the NCTE and the ministry of human resources development.
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Over a month later, then education minister Prakash Javadekar said that the diploma course would bridge the gap between trained and untrained teachers under the Right to Education law. He said that as the RTE took shape in 2009, the government set a six-year target to train the teachers but less than four lakh teachers were actually trained.
“This is a world record,” Javadekar said. "When we started this, we collected money from over 12 lakh students while a total of 15 lakh were registered. This is a great success. Such a large registration has never happened for a single course."
‘Government cheated us’
Awadh Kishore Paswan, who hails from Samastipur in Bihar, had also travelled all the way to Delhi to protest over the diploma degree being deemed “invalid”. Paswan’s wife, Roma Kumari, had completed the diploma course from NIOS and now he said the “government has cheated us”.
Anjali Khare, a resident of Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, told Newslaundry that she is tired of protesting outside the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and the house of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. “No one is listening.” she said, adding that she is returning to her village.
Khare told Newslaundry that she gave the examination for a job at Kendriya Vidyalaya in February last year and its results were announced last October. After the final interviews, held between November 3 to November 8, she was selected for the role but about two hours later, the Supreme Court announced that her diploma degree was deemed invalid.
As she reached out to authorities for her joining letter, the matter came to light and she was subsequently denied the joining letter. “When we had a two-year agreement, why did the government cheat us? We have been running on the streets of Delhi for many days for justice but no one came to help.”
Kiran Barla, a resident of Ranchi in Jharkhand, shared the same fate. She was called to an employment fair for her appointment, but returned empty-handed. “I had never thought that this would ever happen to me. It was not our fault, yet we are the ones who suffer. We feel very bad, because there are very few people who can reach here. Imagine, I have been removed from the contract teaching post as well. I am now unemployed. I’ve lost the job I had.”
Newslaundry reached out to NIOS president professor Saroj Sharma with queries on the matter. This report will be updated on receiving a response.
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