Relief quota teachers sleep on the street during their protest in Kathmandu last year.
KATHMANDU: Most of the members of the House of Representatives are for providing justice to relief quota teachers. However, there are differing opinions among them that these teachers, who have been working in community schools under relief quotas for two decades, can be managed.
Some lawmakers have proposed automatic conversion of relief quota teachers to permanent positions, while others have suggested that only a percentage of them should be made permanent. The lawmakers, however, are in unanimous agreement that age limits should not apply when considering them for permanent positions.
Most amendments presented to the School Education Bill,2023, currently under consideration in the Education, Health, and Information Technology Committee of the lower house favor relief quota teachers.
The Teacher Service Commission had not opened vacancies between 1995 and 2012. During this long gap, relief quota teachers were hired to address teacher shortages. About 40,000 teachers, who were appointed under the relief quota after 1999, have been protesting for a long time, demanding job security. They have been receiving only monthly salary and uniform allowance and are deprived of other benefits.
Lawmakers advocating for automatic conversion of relief quota teachers to permanent positions include Gagan Thapa, Jeevan Pariyar, Ramnath Adhikari, Dev Prasad Adhikari, Arjun Narsingh KC, Raghuji Pant and Mahesh Bartaula. Likewise, Devendra Poudel, Gyanu Basnet Subedi, Ganga Karki, Meena Yadav, Amaravati Yadav, Madhav Sapkota, Prem Bahadur Maharjan, Rama Koirala Poudel, Chandra Bhandari, Sita Mijar and Sobita Gautam also support transitioning relief quota teachers to permanent positions.
Lawmaker Surya Prasad Dhakal, however, has proposed a one-time 100% conversion to permanent positions. Likewise, lawmakers like Surya Thapa and Shishir Khanal have proposed the automatic conversion of relief quota teachers teaching up to Grade 10 into third-class permanent positions. Similarly, Mahesh Basnet has suggested grouping relief quota teachers based on their service duration and conducting limited internal competition through the Teacher Service Commission with 100% reservation.
Lawmaker Manish Jha has proposed changing the current 50-50 split between relief quota and open competition to 75% for relief teachers and 25% for open competition.
Former education minister Sumana Shreshta told Himal Press that she is in favor of the automatic conversion of relief quota positions to permanent positions.
The School Education Bill, 2023, registered in the House of Representatives in September last year, includes provisions for converting relief quota positions of teachers to permanent positions. Then Education Minister Ashok Kumar Rai.
Section 43(4) of the Bill states that existing positions of relief quota teachers will be automatically converted to permanent teaching positions.
Relief quota teachers appointed two decades ago work like permanent teachers but face discrimination in salary, benefits, and job security. Political interference in their appointment and management has created problems in fair recruitment, according to experts.
Education expert Balchandra Luitel suggests that issues of relief quota teachers should be addressed regardless of how they were appointed. “Community schools still lack adequate positions. Relief quota teachers have served in these schools for a long period of them. The state stands to gain from this decision,” he added.
He recommended appointing qualified relief quota teachers permanently by following a specified process.
Kumar Bajgain, former general secretary of the Relief Quota Teachers Central Committee, said that the Education Act should align with previous agreements reached with the government.
An agreement was reached between the government and relief quota teachers in the last week of September 2023. In the agreement, the two sides agreed to change the 50% internal competition provision in the Bill to 100%, providing remote area allowances for relief teachers working in remote regions, establishing sick leave records at the National Records Office (Teachers), combining previous temporary service periods for those who transferred to relief positions, and including all types of relief teachers (deaf, other disabilities, Gurukul, Madrasa, Gumba teachers).
The government has agreed that age limits would not apply in the internal competition conducted by the Teacher Service Commission.
A total of 1,758 amendment proposals have been received on the Bill. The committee, however, has not been able to start clause-wise discussion holding 30 meetings last year.
