A section of higher secondary teachers are in a fix since they have been relieved from their ‘mother’ schools in the wake of the higher secondary teacher transfer order but are unable to join the schools to which they have been shifted to as the Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) has stayed the transfer.
The teachers said the government failure to issue the transfer order taking into consideration outstation service of teachers in districts other than their home district as ordered by the tribunal earlier was responsible for their current predicament.
The teachers said they were very anxious, especially as higher secondary examinations were set to begin next month, and wanted the General Education department to intervene in the matter.
A teacher said she had been relieved from her school the day the higher secondary final transfer list was published, and a new teacher had joined in her vacancy the very next day. However, since the order had been stayed by KAT, she could not join her new school as she had learnt that the teacher there whom she was to replace had not been relieved from there.
She said the joining time of seven working days allowed to her would end on Friday and she had no clue what to do. Her old school had refused to take her back.
“A few colleagues who had been posted to schools nearby joined the next day, and so do not face the same predicament as I do as I had availed myself of joining time. There are one or two such higher secondary teachers in all schools.”
The teacher said she had examination duty in March but did not know what order to produce when she reported there. “We need to be there to receive the question papers, and not only when the examinations begin.”
The Kerala Higher Secondary Teachers’ Union (KHSTU) said the government should have either gone in appeal against the tribunal order that directed due weightage for outstation service in districts other than home district or issued the transfer order as per the tribunal directions. Failure to do so had put a good number of teachers to hardship.
