With over 2600 primary schools and 200 middle schools operating without regular teachers in Madhya Pradesh, some of the existing teachers at government schools have been posted as personal staff for newly-elected MLAs.This comes when 4300 schools in the state are without teaching staff.
Premwati Singh, a primary teacher at a government school in Anuppur district no longer teaches in school as she has been posted as clerical staff for her husband Phundelal Singh Marko, a Congress MLA from Pushprajgarh constituency.
Raghuraj Singh, another teacher at a government school, has been posted as personal staff for his cousin, who is also a Congress MLA from Badwara in Katni.
A total of 10 teachers have been appointed as clerks to 10 MLAs, nine of whom are from the Congress, while one is from the BJP. The teachers posted as personal staff of MLAs get a salary based on MLA’s certification.
Setting aside all norms, the postings have been decided in violation of specific rules that prohibit deployment of teachers to any non-teaching department.
The Right to Education Act, 2009 also bars teachers from being deployed to non-teaching work.
When asked if it is justified to deploy teaching staff for non-teaching work, especially during an acute scarcity at schools, MLA Phundelal Singh Marko suggested that the posting was done by the General Administration Department and that they should answer if it is right or wrong.
Not just MLA Marko but his other colleagues like Murli Morwal, Dilip Singh Gurjar, Pratap Grewal, Bishahu Lal Singh, Kamlesh Gaur Jatav, Banwari Lal Sharma, Vijay Raghavendra, Rajvardhan Singh from the Congress and BJP MLA Leena Jain have also been provided with teachers as their clerical staff.
“It is only in few cases that exception has been provided because there are two things- one there is a scarcity of clerical staff, second there are provisions that any clerical staff could only be posted with the MLA after he or she gives consent, so it has been done only in rare cases,” General Administration Department Minister Dr Govind Singh told The Times Of India.
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