Thiruvananthapuram: The higher secondary teachers have alleged a move to keep them out of the proposed Kerala Administrative Service.
As per a government notification issued on July 11, higher secondary teachers with higher qualification cannot apply for the proposed Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) examination conducted by the PSC while LP, UP and high school teachers are eligible.
The entry to the KAS is in three streams. The first is induction through direct recruitment to the junior time scale. The second is direct recruitment of regular employees or approved probationers in any government department, who are not gazetted officers. The third is for candidates holding first gazetted post or above in departments belonging to schedule 1 and equivalent posts in common categories. The basic qualification to apply for the KAS is graduation.
The qualification for higher secondary teachers is post-graduation and B.Ed with SET, that for high school teachers is degree with B. Ed while it is TTC for LP and UP school teachers.
The high school, UP school and LP school teachers can get recruited to the second stream. However, higher secondary teachers, who are gazetted officers, can be included in the third stream only.
As per a notification in the Kerala Gazette No. 1561 dated July 11, 2019, the teaching staff in the general education department cannot apply under the third stream.
S. Manoj, general secretary, Aided Higher Secondary Teachers Association (AHSTA), told Deccan Chronicle that this was discrimination and a deliberate attempt by someone in the secretariat to keep out higher secondary teachers from the KAS.
The age limit to apply for direct recruitment is 21 to 32. Age relaxation up to three years is allowed for other backward castes and five years for scheduled castes/tribes. The age limit for stream 2 is 21-40.
As per the latest amendment, eligible candidates will get age relaxation for such posts. The upper age limit for stream 3 is 50. Though other reservation criteria apply to these posts, the government has not approved any age relaxation.
