THE SLATE IS CLEAN

Tejas Majithiya, a resident of Gujarat's Una town, is a science graduate, has a Master's degree too in science, has completed a Bachelor in Education (BEd) course and also cleared the state government's teachers' aptitude test (TAT, for recruitment as teaching staff in a government-run or aided school) in 2023.

- Jumana Shah

Despite these wall-to-wall qualifications, however, the 29-year-old has yet to find a job, allegedly owing to the Gujarat government's delayed recruitments for teaching jobs. And he is not the only one. There are thousands out there like him. Take 28-year-old Jaymin Patel of Sabarkantha district and 29-year-old Dilipsinh Rathod from Ahmedabad. They, too, have cleared TAT and the teachers' eligibility test (TET), and completed BEd, and BCom and MCom, respectively, but are waiting to find employment as teachers.

It's been more than a month since the Gujarat government last offered a promise on this. And the subsequent tardiness in action means the issue refuses to die down. In July, the government said there would be teacher recruitments on a vastly expanded scale. This was in response to sustained protests by those who had cleared TAT and TET in 2023 but had yet to receive appointments. Initially, in June, the Gujarat government had announced recruitment for 7,500 teachers in the coming three months, but the intensity of protests had persuaded it to scale that number up to 24,700, to be recruited by December.

This includes 7.500 teachers for subjects like Physical Education, Art and Computer Science, recruitments for which had not been announced initially. If met, this will be the biggest recruitment drive for school teachers in Gujarat in recent memory. The last recruitment was in 2022 when only 2,600 teachers were taken in.