The legal complexities of recruitment of non-government teachers have not yet been removed as the matter of several thousand candidates who received certificates from the NTRCA through 1-12th teachers’ registration exams has not been disposed of .
The Non-government Teachers Registration and Certification Authority (NTRCA) did not appoint the candidates due to the existing policy. Many of the candidates have already crossed 35 years of age and most of them have not been appointed to other institutions.
However, a fresh move by the authorities concerned for recruitment of non-government teachers in thousands of vacant posts in schools, colleges and madrasas across the country has also been halted. The appointment of non-government teachers has been caught in the legal tangle as a number of candidates of 1-12th NTRCA teachers’ registration exams moved the High Court for their appointment.
NTRCA on March 30 issued a public notice to recruit 54,304 teachers in MPO-listed educational institutions.
The High Court on Thursday (May 6) stayed the public notice for seven days and asked the NTRCA to recommend in seven days the appointment of the candidates to comply with the court directive issued on December 14 in 2017.
The virtual bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman issued the directive to NTRCA chairman during the hearing of a writ petition filed by 166 candidates for punishing former NTRCA chairman Ashfaq Hossain for contempt of court for not appointing them as directed by the High Court. He had been asked to implement the 2017 HC directive in 15 days.
The court earlier in January, 2019 issued the contempt ruling against the-then NTRCA chairman for not implementing the HC order even after passing two years.
Advocate Khurshid Alam, Advocate SiddikUllah Mia and Barrister Mahiuddin Md Hanif moved for the petitioners, while Advocate Md Faruk Hossain moved in the court on behalf of the NTRCA.
NTRCA’s lawyer Advocate Md Faruk Hossain said they would take further decision in this regard after talking to the NTRCA authorities. Sources said the NTRCA is now planning to file an appeal. A NTRCA official said that they would take action after talking to the education ministry about the candidates who are eligible but have not been appointed yet.
The High Court delivered its verdict with seven directives on December 14 in 2017. The court in the directives had asked the NTRCA to propose appointment of the writ petitioners and other prospective applicants as per a combined national merit list. In the seven-point directive, the HC also directed the NTRCA to publish the combined national merit list on its official website so that applicants could see the list and their positions.
Later, the NTRCA made the merit list after formulating the ‘Manpower Structure Policy 2018’.
The NTRCA has been holding teachers’ registration exams since 2005. A total of 15 registration exams have been held till now. NTRCA sources said a total of 6,34,127 candidates received certificates from the NTRCA through the teachers’ registration certificate exams from 1-15th registration exams. Of them, the age of over one lakh candidates are over 35 and they will not get the scope to be appointed to the institutions as per the existing policy.
The authorities concerned had taken a plan to appoint teachers to 80,000 vacant posts in two phases. Of them, 54,304 teachers will be appointed in first phase and then 26,000 will be appointed from the successful candidates of 16th NTRCA registration exam.