The series of criticisms and allegations in the newspapers, Parliament and in the court as regards the agitations of the teachers and their trade union action, have emerged as a grave educational issue in the country. Of late, teachers have taken to the streets demanding pay hikes for rectifying their long standing salary anomalies. They even boycotted marking of GCE (A/L) examination answer scripts, holding their students to ransom. The government had to close all schools in the country to avoid potential teachers’ trade union action. All these recent incidents manifest the urgent need for revamping the teachers’ service in the country.

Policies followed by successive governments in teacher recruitment and promotion are seen as the major contributory factors to the present impasse in the teachers’ service. The governments recruited teachers under various names, such as, "Janasaviya teachers", "Contract basis teachers", "Trainee teachers", "Pupil teachers" etc, irrespective of consistent criteria for the selections. The Ministry of Education, time and again, issued "ad hoc circulars" for promotions in the services. These circulars are mostly complex, inconsistent and internally contradictory, comprehended differently by the directors of the zonal education office, provincial directors of education and the provincial secretaries of education and repealed by the very ministry, eating humble pie and /or satisfying only a segment of teachers at the expenses of others.

As pledged by the Ministry of Education, it is most significant to make necessary changes in the present teachers’ service minute to give consistent promotions to the teachers in view of academic qualifications of the teachers as advised by the courts. In this article, I intend to highlight certain flaws in the methods of teachers’ service promotions and propose some useful suggestions to take into account when the Ministry of Education introduces a new amendment to the teachers’ service minutes in 2009.

UNEQUAL ALLOCATION OF POINTS FOR THE SERVICE PERIODS OF TEACHERS:

The points for promotions are "unequally" allocated and counted for different periods of service of teachers. For instance, one point is given for two years, one year, more than a six month period of service for different teachers. This method is not fair and causes inequality among teachers; the service periods of all the teachers should be counted alike.

SERVICE PERIODS OF TEACHERS AND THEIR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS ARE TREATED EQUALLY:

The service period of teachers and their academic qualifications (following a course of study) are two different things and they should be treated and/ or counted by different means. Measuring both by the "point system" is wrong and unfair.

LACK OF ENCOURAGEMENT IN TEACHERS’ PROMOTIONS FOR THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF TEACHERS:

The present teachers’ promotion methods do not give enough encouragement for the academic development of teachers. In this system, the Postgraduate Diploma in Education is given only one point and the Master’s Degree in Education zero points, while a teacher without any academic / professional qualifications earns points for his service periods and gets a promotion.

TWO DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF PROMOTIONS: TEACHERS BEFORE 06.10.1994 AND AFTER

There are two different systems of promotions in the present teacher promotions. Those who were appointed as teachers before 06.10.1994 were treated differently from those appointed after 06.10.1994. There is a grave inequality followed in awarding points for promotions. The teachers in practice should all be treated alike in giving promotions.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING THE PRESENT TEACHERS SERVICE MINUTES FOR granting PROMOTIONS TO TEACHERS:

I suggest to stop allocating points for the service periods of teachers and rather set minimum and maximum service periods for each promotion ( for example, a teacher should serve two years minimum to get a promotion from 3-1 to 2-11, if he has a required professional/ academic qualification degree. This could be called fast track promotion. If the teacher does not have the required academic / professional qualification, he has to serve maximum 8 years to get that promotion).

I also suggest giving points only for the academic/ professional qualification and not for the service periods of the teachers. This will help the teachers to improve their profession. For example,

1. One year full time certificate awarded by recognised university or institution be given one point

2. Two year full time diploma/ trained teacher certificate awarded by recognised university/ institution(college of education/ teachers college) be given two points

3. Three year full time degree awarded by recognised university or institution be given three points

4. One year full time postgraduate diploma in education awarded by recognised university or institution be given four points

5. One year full time Degree of Master of Education awarded by recognised university or institution be given five points

6. M.phil/ Ph.D in Education be given six points.

In addition, difference of degree, special degree, BEd, etc, could be considered for giving additional increments

Finally, I would suggest that the same system be employed even for those appointed before and after 06.10.1994. Those appointed before 06.10.1994. could be absorbed into teachers’ service and given promotions as if there was a teachers’ service even before 06.10.1994. There is no need for two unequal and unfair systems.

I hope my suggestions will catch the eye of the authorities of the Ministry of Education and the trade unions, in framing promotional circulars at least with the corrections needed.

A. M. Jazeel