Many staff recruited from Hindi-speaking States objected to being posted to Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in the southern part of the country, where the language, food and culture were unfamiliar. Photo: tsemrs.telangana.gov.in
The recent centralization of recruitment for tribal residential schools across the country, which introduced Hindi competency as a mandatory requirement, led to a flood of transfer requests. Many staff recruited from Hindi-speaking States objected to being posted to Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in the southern part of the country, where the language, food and culture were unfamiliar.
Although the Central officials stated that the willingness to be posted anywhere in the country is part of the requirements for those applying for the job, a bigger concern may be the impact on tribal students who are taught by teachers who do not understand the local language and culture.
Lack of staff
Until last year, staff recruitment for the Tribal Affairs Ministry’s flagship Eklavya school was done by the State authorities. However, in the 2023 Budget session of Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that the responsibility has been transferred to the National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS), which has now been tasked with staffing 38,000 positions in more than 400 Eklavya schools. throughout the country. Officials said the centralization of recruitment was intended to address the severe shortage of teachers in the EMRS system, and to standardize recruitment rules across the State, which previously used various criteria and applied reservation quotas under State laws.
The exam for this centralized recruitment process – EMRS Staff Selection Exam 2023 – handed over by the National Testing Agency, is now marred by several scandals. The exam is for the first round of 4,000 vacant teaching and non-teaching posts in Eklavya schools. As of June, NESTS said 303 Principals and 707 Junior Secretarial Assistants had been selected, along with thousands of other teaching and non-teaching positions. However, due to the new requirement of Hindi competency, many of the selected candidates are from Hindi speaking States, many of whom now want to move from the post.
‘Currently no transfer’
Since June 20, when the NESTS office in Delhi opened a one-hour window to address the grievances of candidates, aggrieved candidates have been showing up every day. “Some days, four will show up, but other days there will be 20 who show up with the problem,” one source said.
NESTS has been forced to post a notice on its website, saying, “All posted candidates are requested not to approach the NESTS office for change of place. Currently, no request for change of place of posting is being considered. Also, the transfer, whenever it occurs, will be through transfer portal on the NESTS website which will be implemented immediately after the transfer policy is published.
Government sources said that NESTS will soon roll out a transfer policy, which will be modeled on the same policy for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Kendriya Vidyalayas. He added that there is “nothing strange” about the basic Hindi language competency requirement as this is also mandatory for JNV and KV recruitment.
A specific cultural context
However, unlike at KV, where the students come from other countries as they are often family members of Central government employees, the mostly tribal students at Eklavya’s school will benefit from teachers who understand the local cultural context. “The problem is that for EMRS in particular, teachers and school staff recruited from the local community is a clear way. This community has a very specific context in which learning can be conducive and it will certainly help teachers who understand this context,” said Aparna Choudhary, a social worker which runs the Delhi-based Karta Initiative, which has partnered with JNV and EMRS. .
“Some EMRS are located in very remote areas, which have a specific cultural context. Such things will only affect learning. A child in the context of Telugu or Marathi cannot be expected to adjust to a teacher who does not see that. It will have the same effect if non-Hindi-speaking teachers end up in Hindi-speaking areas,” he said.
‘Learn the local language’
A government official said the recruits have been told to learn the local language for two years, and “a certain amount will be spent in this process to train them”. One source said: “When they take a job, they have to be posted somewhere. This is made clear in the application. It’s also unfair to schools in the south if the staff keep saying they don’t want to be posted there.
“Even if they help us learn the local language, I wouldn’t be able to,” said Priyanka, 26, from Hisar, who was appointed as a Junior Secretariat Assistant at EMRS in Telangana and came to join. he posted on July 11. “He can best send us our own country like many others have had a chance.”
Another staff from Delhi, also posted in Telangana complained about the “nature of the food” and wanted to inquire about the transfer request process.
Officials, however, explained that, according to the established procedure, the first preference for posting in the home state is given to persons with disabilities, followed by Scheduled Tribe (ST) women, ST men, women from the general category, and then the general category. .
