Haryana Teachers body opposes state’s move to depute DIET faculty in Schools – Times of India

CHANDIGARH: Strongly opposing the move of the school education department to depute the faculty working in district institutes of education and training (DIETs) into schools, the Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh, has requested the state not to paralyse these premium educational institutions of the state.

According to Sangh, already only 300 of the total 600 sanctioned posts of DIETs are working in these institutes and by deputing the current staff in schools, only the buildings would be left in the state.

In its letter, sent to Mahavir Singh, additional chief secretary (school education) Haryana, the teachers body has also requested the government to restart diploma is education (DEd) course in DIETs so that meritorious students from poor families can get quality education from the highly trained staff in nominal fee.

In 2018, the state government had discontinued the JBT courses in 21 DIETs located in almost every district of the state and allowed such courses only in self-financed or private institutes. While fee for the two-year JBT course at government-run DIETs was around Rs 6,000-8,000, the private institutions are charging around Rs 60,000 for the same.

The 21 DIETs had 100 seats each of the DEd course. Around 14 of them were located in rural areas, where five seats in each institute were reserved for the local students as villages had given land for setting up the institute. Even the staff posted in DIET are selected through a separate selection process and are highly educated. The exclusion of the state-of-the-art DIETs, well-equipped with infrastructure and highly qualified regular staff, from conducting JBT course is also hitting the quality of education in the state. There are reports that some of the private institutions are virtually running like “education shops” and running the course in “non-attending” mode.

DIET faculty also have the mandate to implement the education policies of the Centre through state council for educational research and training (SCERT) and holding various specialised training courses and orientation programmes for the teaching staff posted in districts.

“DIETs have several wings which works in accordance with the MHRD directions in different fields of educational work. They were already working with 50% of their sanctioned strength but now suddenly deputing them to school would jeopardize the entire education system. We demand that for an efficient educational environment and qualitative education in the state, the institutions like DIETs should not be weakened by the government,” says Chander Navdeep Bharti, state president of Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh in the communication sent to the state.

On December 11, the school education department had issued a letter proposing to depute DIET faculty in schools.