Transfer policy for teachers

Ashok Sharma
Children are the most valuable resource of a country as it is they who are the future citizens of the country and on them lies the responsibility of running their country in an efficient manner.Therefore they  should be provided such an education as should prepare them to develop values and skills needed for catapulting their country to great heights of excellence and development. For developing these traits ane values it is imperative that the teachers entrusted with the onerous task of imparting these values in the children, besides being highly trained and motivated, should be emotionally stable and mentally tension free.One of the ways to improve the emotional health of teachers is to frame and implement a viable, transparent, rational  and teacher friendly transfer policy for teachers.Transfers of teachers are imperative to expose them to new environment, enable them to teach children belonging to diversified social and economic backgrounds and help them to maintain their dynamism, adventurous spirit and inquisitive nature.But, unfortunately no transparent and viable transfer policy for teachers of all cadres has been in vogue and if there is any, it is hardly put into practice.Often what happens is that the teachers who manage to wield political or other outside influence continue to enjoy choice postings in or around  the cities and those who have no political back languish in far flung and inaccessible areas for years together with the department turning a deaf ear to their pleas for transfers.  They cannot nurture, guide and help their own children whose academic performance declines in due course of time.The other members of their family, especially the elderly ones also suffer due to their prolonged absence from homes.Such teachers often develop emotional and psychological problems and begin to show lack of enthusiasm and their efficiency declines with their hapless  students being the ultimate sufferers.
Thus there is a dire need to find a long term and viable solution to the crucial problem of transfers and postings.The Government needs to exihibit a sense of commitment and take sincere measures to remove the shortcomings in the existing transfer policy and formulate a humane, viable and teacher friendly transfer policy and then implement it in letter and spirit.While effecting transfers of teachers, the need of the school and interest of the students should be kept uppermost.It iadvisable to order transfers and postings at the beginning or tailend of the academic session with a view to avoid academic loss to the students.The ‘ hard’ and ‘very hard’ stations should be identified on the basis of aspects such as distance from the road, transport, medical and residential facilities available in the area etc..It should be made mandatory for each teacher to put in at least two years of his service in a school located in ‘hard’ area and one year in ‘very hard’ area, exempting, of course, female teachers and those themselves or their spouse or children suffering from terminal illness.It should necessarily be mentioned in the transfer orders of such teachers that they shall report to their respective Directorate of School Education or Chief Education Officer,as the case may be, after the completion of the stipulated period of two or one year.They should be given choice posting as an incentive for rendering service in tough and inaccessible areas.
Database of each and every teacher should be prepared and it should include the service rendered in hilly and inaccessible areas, level of performance for the last 3 to 5 years, qualification, refresher/orientation courses attended, awards/prizes won, role in promoting education,mobilizing community participation in educational and social activities etc.All these aspects should be taken into consideration at the time of transfer.Teachers selected on the basis of categories such as Residents of Backward areas/Actual Line of Control etc should invariably be posted in such notified areas and made to serve in such areas for at least ten years and then transferred to other areas on the basis of their satisfactory  perfomance in such areas as it is often the schoos  in such areas which remain understaffed because of the reluctance of the teachers to serve in these areas.In no case a teacher should be transferred  or his order modified before he completes his mandatory tenure of mature stay at his initial place of posting after first appoinment or on promotion.Wives of security forces personnel serving in Indian Defence Forces should be posted as near to their homes as possible to enable them to take care of their children and elders.The power of transferring teachers too needs to be decentralised.Often it is the concentration of power in the hands of the competent authority, which breeds corruption amd inordinate delay at the time of transfer with merit taking a backseat.Transfer cells at the zonal, district and provincial level should be set up at the time of transfers with nodal officer as the head of the cell.The Chief Education Officer should be empowered to issue transfer orders of teachers on the basis of the proposals submitted by the zonal level cell and masters should be transferred by the Directorate on the basis of proposals submitted by the district level cell headed by the Chief Education Officer of the respective district.The procedure for transfer of teachers too need s to be recast.Applications for transfer of teacher should be invited in the months of February/October from the teachers serving respectively in summer/winter zone.  Teachers must be advised to route their applications through proper channels and any application submitted in violation to this instruction should be rejected.In this hi -tech age and in view of the recruitment of a  large number of teachers due to unprecedented expansion of education as a rsult of schemes such as SSA, RMSA, etc, teachers can also be asked to submit on line applicatons and efforts must be made to order and upload trasfer orders online.It will help in bringing efficiency, speed and accountability and avoiding  complaints of procedural delays and reduce third party intervention and thus prevent corruption.Attempt of a teacher to bring political or other outside influence for transfer should be treated as an act of misconduct and appropriate disciplinery action should be taken by the department against such teachers to avoid recurrence of such acts  in future .Applications should be examined upto15thMarch/November and transfer orders should be issued in April/December.An Appeallate Committee also needs to be constituted at district/provincial level to review the appeals filed by the aggrieved teachers/masters.All appeals should be disposed of during the summer/winter vacations
As for transfers of lecturers are concerned, they should not be posted against the post of lecturer in the subject other than their own .More posts of lecturers need to bo created in the discipline of English in view of growing number of students at 10+2 level.Rationalisation of posts should be carried out periodically so that teachers and lecurers are posted as per the need and strength of the school.Deployment or attachments of teaching or nonteaching staff should never be resorted to in the general interest of the studentsNonlocal lecturers and principals posted in Ladakh and in districts other than their own should be repatriated to their own districts after completion of their two year tenure in tough areas.Clear imstructions need to be issued to authorities vested with powers  of transfer to go in for general transfer orders of employees instead of issuing single transfer order except under exceptional circumstances such as on  medical grounds.Appropriate action need to be taken against officers who act in violation to such directions.
Teaching is considered to be a noble profession and teachers are expected to consider their duty as service to God and teach likewise to impart quality education to the children.But their service condition need to be improved to enable them to discharge their duty properly amd efficiently.If their transfer policy is streamlined and made free from political and other outside interference, they will devote more time in their classrooms instead of participating in agitations and staging dharnas against the authorities for resorting to indiscrimate and unsystematic transfers .in this way, there will surely be remarkable  improvement in the deteriorating standard of education .

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