PANAJI
Just 212 vacancies to be filled on a regular basis in the Education department has attracted over 12,000 applicants in tune with the rising unemployment rate numbers Goa has been posting recently and the huge premium for ‘government jobs’ among the State’s educated but ‘unemployed’ youth.
Some 2,073 candidates have filed the papers for the 142 vacancies of primary school teachers the Directorate of Education has advertised and an addition 10,700-odd have applied for the 70 posts of lower division clerks (LDCs).
Director of Education Shailesh Zingade said, the written screening test for the applicants to the posts of primary teachers is slated to be conducted on Saturday and the written test for the LDC posts will be held on Sunday at centres across the State.
According to Zingade, candidates will be permitted to appear for the screening test only if they possess a diploma or degree in ‘elementary education’ (DEd, DLEd and BLEd).
Those with a Bachelor in Education (BEd) degree do not qualify, he added.
As many as 383 of the applicants have specified that they hold BLEd degrees but officials scrutinising the applications suspect that these individuals possess BEd degrees as none of the institutions they specified offer the BLEd degree, Zingade said.
When the DoE advertised the posts of primary teachers, the mandatory qualifications were listed as Diploma in Education (DEd), Diploma in Elementary Education (DLEd) or BLEd (Bachelor of Elementary Education).
“Such candidates who have a BEd and not BLEd degree will not be permitted to answer the test,” Zingade said.
Interestingly, the DoE has opted to hold the recruitment test for the 70 LDC posts by itself and not through the Goa Staff Selection Commission (GSSC).
In mid-November, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who incidentally also holds the Education portfolio, had announced that all non-technical and non-gazetted positions in the government will henceforth be filled via the Commission.
