Odisha Govt Announces Regularisation Of Contractual Teachers’ Services

Bhubaneswar: Fulfilling the long-standing demand of the contractual teachers, the Odisha government on Thursday announced regularisation of their services.

The School and Mass Education department, in a notification on the day, said, “The treatment of regular service period/regularisation of teachers was under consideration of the government. Now, the government is pleased to consider the service period/regularisation of such teachers joining on contractual mode/initial appointees.”

The department said irrespective of the date of regularisation, the contractual teachers will be allowed seniority as per the merit list in their year of recruitment and considered senior to the teachers recruited in subsequent batches or year of recruitment. They will also be allowed notional pay not less than the teachers recruited as per the Odisha Group-B posts (Contractual appointment rules) 2013.

Following the announcement by the department, the members of the Odisha government high school contractual teachers’ association, who have been staging a dharna in Bhubaneswar for the last 13 days, called off their agitation.

“Though the chief minister announced regularisation of all contractual employees six months back, around 18,000 contractual high school teachers did not get the benefit despite their demand for several years. I hope the government would publish the detailed guidelines of the regularisation soon,” said the association’s president, Panchanan Jena.