All Nagaland Hindi Students’ Union (ANHSU) has served a five-day ultimatum on the State government to allow Hindi graduates to sit for exam for recruitment of Hindi teachers scheduled on July 7, 2022. The union threatened to approach the court of law if the government failed to respond to its demand.
ANHSU said Hindi graduates in Nagaland were deeply aggrieved by the arbitrary and mala fide action of the governments, particularly the Department of School Education (DoSE) for depriving them to the extent of not allowing them to sit for the exam scheduled on July 7.
Noting that the March 16, 2022 advertisement notifying vacancies of 58 posts of Hindi GTs clearly spelt out graduates/post-graduates (or equivalent) with at least 50% marks either in graduation or in post-graduation with Hindi as an elective subject at Bachelor’s Degree level from a recognised University and B Ed, BA Ed/B Sc Ed from any National Council of Teachers Education (NCTE) recognised institution eligibility criteria, the union alleged that those with equivalent qualification in Hindi as Hindi graduates/Hindi post-graduates had been disallowed from appearing in the exam. It said many had not even been allowed to submit their forms in an act of extreme discrimination, which was unreasonable and untenable as per law.
According to the union, there was no Hindi B Ed course in Nagaland. In Hindi. the B Ed equivalent course was called Parangat. Though many in Nagaland had master’s degree in Hindi, none of them had Parangat. Hence, the union termed the insistence from candidates a course that was not available in Nagaland as not only unreasonable, but also arbitrary and mala fide. Perhaps the department had a hidden ulterior motive to favour few privileged people or welcome those from outside to deprive children of the soil, it added.
The advertisement also gave weightage to those who took Hindi as an elective subject in BA in lieu of Alternative English to make them eligible to apply for the present 58 posts, which the union termed as a mockery to those who had spent years pursuing the courses. It likened DoSE’s action to giving preference to those who took Moral Science as their elective subject while appointing pastors, instead of those who studied theology.
In Hindi course Parichay was equivalent to class 10 pass, Kovid was equivalent to class 12 pass and Ratna was equivalent to graduate course. So, when there were equivalent qualifications, the demand for PU and BA in non-Hindi course was highly unreasonable and devoid of common sense. By misinterpreting its own advertisement, the union charged the department of depriving local Hindi graduates of a fair opportunity to appear in the exams, which was a clear violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.
The department was in full knowledge that Nagaland had only one institution at Dimapur providing Diploma in Elementary Education (D El Ed)/Praveen, which was equivalent to PSTE for primary teachers, and that too for the in-service Hindi primary teachers. Besides this course for Hindi primary teachers, the union said there was no other institution in Nagaland that provided Hindi B Ed, which was Parangat in Hindi.
Declaring that depriving local Hindi graduates the opportunity to appear for the exam by demanding something that was not offered by the State government/private institution was highly unreasonable, arbitrary and mala fide, ANHSU charged the State government, particularly DoSE, of having some hidden agenda to discriminate them. This was stated in a press release by union’s president Thongminlal Thomsong and vice-president Ajomu (John) Yepthomi.
