Imphal, October 30: Asserting that corruption in the recruitment of teachers has led to the gradual deterioration of the quality of teachers in the past many years, the proscribed KYKL today said that instead of choosing the best candidates, Ministers and MLAs have been recommending the names of their choices with the vote and other considerations in mind.

The result is there for all to see, said the outfit in a statement today and added that teachers have been appointed on adhoc and part time basis and even though a good number of the teachers may not possess the required qualification they are today clamouring that their service be regularised on the ground that they have been serving for the last 10 years or so.

To achieve their demands, they have approached the Court and the people have had to bear the pangs of bandhs, blockades and strikes for long, said the outfit.

The interview/test conducted recently for recruiting teachers was done so following immense pressure from all side, said KYKL and added that even then the fairness of the test is suspect.

Citing an example, the statement said that on December 8 last year, the Government issued a notification with the signature of the Chief Secretary that the interview will carry 10 marks.

Then again on December 17 another order was issued by the Chief Secretary which said that the interview will carry 20 marks.

Finally the interview carried only 15 marks, said the outfit and added that for candidates with higher qualification the mark was fixed at 10.How did this happen, questioned the outfit and further asked whether the Chairman of the selection committee can over ride the Government's order.

Questioning the merit of the interview held to recruit graduate teachers recently, KYKL said that each candidate was interviewed for only 3/4 minutes and the subject experts were teachers from the higher secondary level.

In contrast the interview conducted by the Kendriya Vidyalayas and JNV under the Human Resource Development Ministry, for each teacher lasts at least 20/25 minutes and the mark for the interview is 20, said the statement.

In the case of KV and JNV the candidates have to undergo a thorough screening process with the interview conducted by experts, noted KYKL.

Psychologist, subject expert are compulsory in the interview here.

For Sainik School, for the interview, the subject experts are taken from either the MPSC or MU.

Questioning why such a laid back approach is adopted while recruiting teachers, the outfit asked how the quality of a teacher can be assessed only during 5 minutes.

In the interview to select graduate teachers, the services of a number of corrupt elements were utilised, said KYKL and mentioned the names of S Geeta Devi, Addl Director of Education (Valley) and Th Lokhon Singh Jt Secy (IPR).

The two named officers were earlier involved in the interview for selecting 146 Hindi graduate teachers, said KYKL and added that Geeta Devi was present as the subject expert while Th Lokhon Singh was a Govt nominee.

The interview was held from June 16, 1999 to July 10, 1999. The two were later rounded up by the Operation New Kangleipak of KYKL on November 8, 2001 and they surrendered to the outfit on charges of corruption.

Despite the charges of corruption against them, why did the Government utilise their service in the selection of graduate teachers, countered the outfit.

Taking all these points into consideration there is ground to suspect that the interview must be mired in corruption, said KYKL.

As such the marks secured by the candidates in his/her graduation, marks secured in the written test and the marks allotted to the candidates during the interview by the subject experts and committee members should be published when the result is declared, said the outfit.

If the marks secured thus are not announced then it can be presumed that the selection process was not fair, it added.

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