Agartala, August 16:
A political row over the shortage of teachers in Tripura’s schools has intensified, with Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman accusing the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the state of pursuing a deliberate policy to weaken the public education system.
Roy Barman’s remarks came in response to Cabinet spokesman and Minister Sushanta Chowdhury’s assertion that fresh teacher recruitment was being delayed due to financial constraints.
The Congress MLA had earlier raised concerns over the continuing shortage of teachers following the removal of 10,323 teachers pursuant to a Supreme Court order, retirements and the non-recruitment of candidates who have qualified in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). He also questioned why TET examinations were not being conducted regularly.
Responding to the issue at a press conference recently, Chowdhury said teacher recruitment through TET could not be undertaken in the same manner as large-scale examinations such as the UPSC civil services examination.
He said recruitment would require a “sizeable” number of vacancies, preferably in the range of 3,000 to 5,000, rather than smaller recruitment exercises involving 200 to 400 posts.
The Minister acknowledged ‘financial constraints’ and that schools were facing staff shortages, partly because teachers retire every day, but maintained that the government had to function within its available financial resources.
“You have to cut your coat according to the cloth available… we cannot go extravagant,” Chowdhury said, while referring to financial constraints and the development initiatives being undertaken under Chief Minister Manik Saha’s government.
He said the government intended to recruit eligible candidates through the Tripura Recruitment Board (TRBT) process “in due course”, but clarified that no official circular or instruction had so far been issued.
Roy Barman, however, rejected the financial constraints argument and alleged that the BJP had succeeded in a “conspiracy” to weaken the education system.
He claimed that around 93,000 schools had closed across the country since the Narendra Modi government came to power and alleged that more than 1,400 government schools had shut in Tripura during the same period. These figures were cited by Roy Barman and have not been independently verified.
The Congress MLA further alleged that several schools, from the primary to higher secondary levels, were functioning with only one or two teachers, even as TET, NET and SET-qualified candidates, including PhD holders, remained unemployed.
Questioning the government’s contention that financial constraints were preventing recruitment, Roy Barman pointed to the BJP’s “double-engine” governments at the Centre and in Tripura. He argued that if education and health were genuine priorities, teacher recruitment should not be held up on the grounds of inadequate funds.
Roy Barman, a former Minister, also cited his own figures on the strength of regular state government employees, claiming that the number had fallen from around 1.7 lakh during Congress-led governments to around 1.3 lakh under the Left Front and approximately one lakh at present.
He questioned why the government continued to cite financial constraints when the number of regular employees had declined and retiring personnel were allegedly not being replaced across departments.
Referring to the Chief Minister’s statements on the Finance Commission’s award for committed expenditure, including salaries and pensions, Roy Barman argued that the government’s position on financial constraints was inconsistent.
“It’s a wake-up call… something is fishy, something is going wrong,” Roy Barman said, alleging that the issue was not merely a shortage of funds but reflected an intention to deny educated youth employment opportunities.
The exchange has brought the long-pending issue of teacher vacancies, recruitment of TET-qualified candidates and the financial sustainability of the state’s education system back into the centre of Tripura’s political debate.
