State to have 5,160 more teachers

BANGALORE: In order to meet the shortage of teaching staff in its schools and junior colleges, the state government has initiated the process of recruiting 3,400 high school teachers and 1,760 pre-university college lecturers.Speaking to media persons here on Wednesday, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri said, “Applications have already been received and were being scrutinised.Once it is over, the department will conduct exams.” The entrance test for high school teacher recruitment will be held between June 23 and 26 while that for lecturers will be held from June 12 to 21.Also, the public instructions department has sent a proposal to finance department to appoint 8,000 more teachers besides seeking permission to appoint guest teachers in schools.Reacting to Karnataka High Court’s remark against the state government for not having sufficient teachers in schools, Kageri said, “As per the pupil-teacher ratio fixed by the Right To Education Act, the state has more teachers than the national average.According to RTE Act, there should be one teacher for every 30 students. But in Karnataka we have one teacher for 28 students.” On the implementation of RTE, Kageri said that the government was sincerely trying to implement the Act though there were lots of confusion.“Since it is the first year, there are confusions on several issues.However, we are doing our best to implement the Act by taking private educational institutions into confidence.”