Chandigarh: Ever heard of an employer setting aside only 20 per cent marks for merit, including educational qualification and skills, while the remaining 80 per cent comprises other considerations, such as economic, socioeconomic conditions, age, and the district of domicile?
This is how the Haryana government is going about recruiting trained graduate teachers (TGTs) and post-graduate teachers (PGTs) for state schools through its recruitment agency, Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN).
According to its website, the HKRN was set up “with the objective of providing contractual manpower to all government entities in the state in a transparent, robust and equitable manner”. Government sources told ThePrint that poor and Mukhya Mantri Antyodaya Parivar Utthan Yojana (MMAPUY) beneficiary families will get preference in contractual government jobs through the Nigam.
In an advertisement taken out on 30 December last year, the HKRN invited applications for filling vacant posts of TGTs and PGTs on a contractual basis.
Though the advertisement did not mention the total number of vacancies, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced on 7 December that 4,144 candidates were provided PGT and TGT jobs through HKRN, and the process for filling 4,800 more such posts had been initiated.
The points a candidate can earn are listed under Annexure ‘A’ of the advertisement which outlines ‘Selection and Scoring Criteria for Deployment of TGTs and PGTs’.
Of the total 150 marks, only 30 pertain to skills or educational qualification: 20 are for clearing Haryana Teachers Eligibility Test (HTET) — the HTET certificate being valid for seven years from the day of passing — and another 10 for the educational qualification. There is a formula to compute marks from the percentage secured in undergraduate degree courses for TGTs, and postgraduate degree courses for PGTs respectively.
Then, the annual family income can fetch a maximum of 40 marks. An annual family income of up to Rs 1.80 lakh will fetch 40; that between Rs 1.80 lakh and Rs 2.50 lakh will fetch 30 marks; that between Rs 2,50,001 and Rs 4 lakh will attract 20 marks; and for a family income between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 6 lakh, a candidate will get 10 marks.
Five marks have been reserved for the socio-economic status — to be given to widows; to the first or the second child if the applicant’s father has died before attaining the age of 42; and to the first or the second child if the father died before the candidate turned 15.
As many as 50 marks have also been set aside for the beneficiaries of the MMAPUY. According to the MMAPUY website, the scheme is an initiative under which the government has identified the poorest of the poor in the state whose family income will be raised to up to Rs 1.80 lakh per annum through skill development and self-employment.
Candidates can also get up to 15 marks for fulfilling the age criterion. There are five marks for candidates in the age group of 18-25; 10 for 24-30 years; 15 for 30-36 years; 10 for 36-42 years; and zero for those above 42 years of age.
Further, 10 marks have been reserved for “ease of deployment/ weightage for the residence of the same district”.
Opposition flak
The government’s criteria for teachers is facing criticism from opposition leaders who allege that the selection process lacks transparency and recruitments through HKRN are an attempt to phase out regular recruitments in the state.
Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda raised the issue in the winter session of the assembly too through a calling attention motion. Speaking to ThePrint, Hooda said, “The objective of the HKRN is to promote contract practice by abolishing confirmed jobs, merit, and reservation and making recruitment institutions redundant. The government is playing with the future of educated and qualified youth. Bypassing merit, it has made the income of the family the basis for recruitment.”
He pointed out that the income recorded in the family identity cards cannot be cross-checked either. The information is provided by people and there was no foolproof mechanism to check it, he added.
Replying to the call attention motion of the Opposition on 27 December, Khattar said the HKRN was set up following complaints of exploitation in cases of employment through contractors.
“Temporary employment is offered for a period of one year on a contractual basis through the HKRN. The contractual employment ends the moment a regular person is recruited in their place through Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) and Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC). The employee so removed, however, can also apply for regular recruitment,” the Haryana CM said.
Khattar added that through the HKRN, priority is given to those with higher educational qualifications. He said that so far, 4,000-5,000 TGT, PGT recruitments have been done through the Nigam.
He added that more than 90,000 employees engaged through private agencies have been accommodated in the HKRN.
The chief minister said the recruitment norms being adopted by Nigam were up on the HKRN website, making the process transparent as candidates can calculate their marks according to the cut-off merit.
He said the Opposition always protests whenever his government brings any radical change in the system.
He pointed out that earlier, the recruitment system was run through private agencies, from where government departments, and corporations hired manpower. With the HKRN, the government has created a transparent platform, he said.
Though the HKRN was incorporated under the Company Act in October 2021, it is only recently that it has stepped up recruitment. The Nigam is in addition to the HPSC that conducts civil services examinations and competitive examinations to select eligible candidates for various civil services and departmental posts, and the HSCC for recruitment of staff in various government departments.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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