Keep mass teacher transfer orders in abeyance, look at it sympathetically: LG

New Delhi

Lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena on Sunday suggested that the mass teacher transfer orders be kept in abeyance, asking chief secretary Naresh Kumar and the directorate of education to take a “holistic and sympathetic” view in cases of teachers who have completed 10 years at a school.

The move comes after the LG received multiple representations from government school teachers and held a meeting with a teacher’s delegation on Sunday. Teachers were accompanied by MPs Manoj Tiwari, Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Yogender Chandoliya and Bansuri Swaraj.

Raj Niwas, in a series of posts on X, said: “LG VK Saxena, consistently striving for better service conditions for government employees, so that they can perform optimally, has advised the chief secretary & Directorate of education to take a sympathetic, holistic and fair view into the recent transfer orders pertaining to teachers. He has suggested that in the interim, the orders be kept in abeyance. LG had received several representations from different government school teacher’s associations and today met their delegation at Raj Niwas.”

Delhi education minister Atishi has been ordering the education department to halt the mass transfers of over 5,000 teachers under the new policy, which mandates transfers of teachers who have completed 10 years at the same school. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and the LG for allegedly hampering Delhi’s education system.

On Sunday, Delhi education minister Atishi said that after strong opposition from the Kejriwal government, the BJP and LG had to withdraw the order. “This transfer was done against my order. These 5,000 teachers were transferred because these are the teachers who have transformed the government schools of Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government in the past 10 years. I am happy that today, the BJP and their LG have had to withdraw the decision to transfer these 5,000 teachers. This is not only the victory of Delhi’s teachers and parents, it is the victory of all Delhiites.”

“We have stopped BJP’s conspiracy to ruin Delhi’s schools. BJP should stop the conspiracy to harass Delhiites and spoil Delhi’s government schools. The people of Delhi will never forgive you for this,” she said.

On June 11, the education department issued a circular informing about the teacher transfer. On July 1, the education minister issued written directions to the education department to recall the decision and withhold teacher transfers. Atishi issued show cause notices to the senior education department officers on July 3 on the grounds of “wilful disobeyance” of the order and subsequently, asked the chief secretary to halt the mass transfers.

On Sunday, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva led a delegation of Delhi BJP leaders and a large group of government school teachers to meet the LG and seek his intervention. Sachdeva said that the “callous and confrontational” working of government education minister Atishi with her department officials resulted in the order, saying she repeatedly questioned why teachers continued to work in the same school for decades.

“The confrontational policy of minister and service regulations, which say every government employee, including teachers, have to be transferred after three years forced the officials to order transfer. We call upon the minister to stop misleading teachers,” he said.