Bidar: From now on, every primary and high school teacher has to serve at least five years in a rural school. The State Government has added this and other new regulations to the service rules of teachers. These have been issued to monitor the transfer process of teachers. These amendments were sure to benefit backward districts like Bidar where the vacancy of teachers has been at an average of around 20 per cent in the last five years.

Even senior teachers, who had put in 15 years of service without serving in rural areas, would be transferred immediately, according to the guidelines. Such teachers would be sent to schools outside their "urban agglomeration", the guidelines said. This clause did not apply to teachers aged over 50.

"These changes had been done to ensure that vacancy in rural schools was reduced to less than five per cent," Education Department sources said.

The guidelines stipulated that the first appointment of a teacher would be to a rural school. He would not be transferred out of a rural area for the first five years. Excess staff in some schools would be identified and redeployed to wherever necessary.

According to the order, "the number of teachers who have not served in rural areas shall be maintained at 5 per cent in any urban school, at all times." All teachers serving in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan would be transferred to other schools where this programme was running. No transfer would be made in a school if the number of vacancies there was more than five per cent.

Another important fact was that the Government had kept its promise made in the Legislative Assembly that all transfers of teachers would be through counselling. The first such counselling would be held on May 28, sources said. The primary school teachers' association has welcomed the new guidelines. Making rural service mandatory was a good idea. But it had to be strictly followed. "Also, we demand that counselling should be transparent," said association secretary Mohammad Patel.

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