Kolkata: State-aided Christian missionary-run high schools in West Bengal are no longer required to take the government’s consent to start the process of recruiting their heads. The missionaries have also been allowed to transfer teachers among the schools in accordance with their rules.
“The government has issued an order allowing the state-aided Christian missionary-run high schools to recruit their heads directly following their selection process and without the government’s prior permission,” an official in the school education department said. “The schools will not have to publish any advertisement…. They can directly select a candidate and appoint him/her.”
In the new system, the selection panels will only comprise members appointed by the founder bodies of the schools. There will be no government representative. Government nominees on the selection panels were not mandatory in the previous system.
“A process is on to grant the freedom to the Christian missionary-run primary schools aided by the state government,” the official said.
In the previous system, the schools were required to take the government’s permission to start the recruitment process. The schools had been complaining that the office of the district inspector of schools often sat on the proposals, delaying the process, reported The Telegraph.
“We are happy the government has finally agreed to allow us to recruit our heads directly in accordance with our recruitment procedures. The new system will help the schools avoid delays in appointing a school head,” said Father Moloy D’Costa, the general secretary of the Association of Christian Schools in Bengal.
The educational qualifications and other criteria remain the same as non-minority schools.
The government has also empowered the Christian missionaries running high schools to transfer teachers as they deem fit. A similar decision is on the cards for missionary-run state-aided primary schools as well.