Students across the country on Saturday protested against the government’s November 24 agreement with the temporary school teachers to confirm their services without their having to take part in open competition — the provisions of the accord are enshrined in the Education Act, 2003, which was passed by Parliament last Friday. The students contend that automatic confirmation of services will deprive better candidates of the opportunity, also leading to deterioration in the quality of teaching. The new Act has three separate provisions for temporary teachers — one for an exclusive job-confirming test, another for the rehabilitation of those “displaced” in the course of the 8-year period between the holding of the examinations for permanent vacancies in 2052 BS and the publication of the results, and the third for a special incentive for those failing the special test.

The law casts aside merit. There are now some 14,000 vacancies and an equal number of temporary teachers. If they become permanent, as is likely, after fulfilling the legal and administrative formalities, it will be rewarding those who joined the service mostly through the back door on the recommendation, pressure, and decisions of politicians. This kind of automatic confirmation, as is being implemented in other sectors too, will hardly convince the public that the government, which owes its claim to power to the Jana Andolan II, will build a new Nepal based on the principles of equality, fairness, and merit. Temporary teachers are by nature temporary and if they cannot become permanent in open competition they have no right to continue in their jobs. It is another matter that the government may choose to give them some financial incentive at separation in consideration of the length of their service. But under the new law a maximum number of temporary teachers are likely to be confirmed, without having to demonstrate merit. Besides, the temporary teachers do not have to worry about there being too few seats for too many people. All of them have enough vacancies to fill.

The tendency to make automatic service confirmation, upgrade daily-wage employees to contractual or temporary status, and temporary employees to permanent status has reached epidemic proportions. And there is heavy pressure to make even promotion time-bound and automatic, as the civil service Bill now before the Parliament proposes. Corporations and government agencies, such as the Nepal Electricity Authority and the Nepal Telecom, are going through the process of making permanent their temporary employees without their having to compete with outsiders in any real sense. This pervasive practice gives those in power a back door through which they can induct as many of their favourites as they want who otherwise are incapable of competing, and in due course of time, they will graduate to the status of permanent employees. This is a glaring and serious example of how the letter and spirit of the Constitution, the law and the regulations are got around by those in power.