Ranchi: In a bittersweet twist of fate, Nandlal Ravani from Jamtara in Jharkhand celebrated his 60th birthday on Tuesday, just 24 hours after finally receiving his appointment letter as an assistant teacher (sahayak acharya).In essence, Ravani retired from service after securing his dream govt job. “I don’t know how to react. I waited my entire life for a permanent job, only to get it a day before retirement,” Ravani said.Ravani, a para teacher since 2006, cleared the Jharkhand Teacher Eligibility Test (JTET) in 2016. Though the recruitment drive commenced in 2023, the administrative process dragged on until he hit superannuation.He was among 1,042 teachers handed letters by chief minister Hemant Soren on Monday.Ravani is not a one-off case in Jharkhand, Naeem Ansari of Palamu received his letter a month too late, having turned 60 on May 31, spending 24 years as a para teacher.Likewise, 54-year-old Bharti Dhan from Khunti faces a race against time with a mere six years left to serve as a teacher.This trend is rapidly becoming a recurring theme. During a previous appointment letter distribution programme on May 18, several primary school appointees revealed they were within months of retiring.Rajendra Vishwakarma of Palamu, who retires in 2028, pointed out that while he passed the JTET in 2016, the selection exam was delayed until 2023, and the appointment process only commenced in 2025.Amit Mahato, vice-president of the Jharkhand Prathamik Shikshak Sangh, explained that the issue uniquely impacts para teachers due to a 50% reservation quota and an extended age relaxation of up to 58 years, compared to the 35-year age limit for freshers. “If the recruitments are done timely, then this problem would not arise,” Mahato said.Defending the timeline, school education and literacy department secretary Uma Shankar Singh said, “As the eligibility hinges on the JTET, which was last conducted in 2016, the candidate pool was limited to those who cleared the test a decade ago. Regular recruitment drives have been conducted for the last few years; if this continues, such issues will not recur, and the pupil-teacher ratio in the schools will also increase.”Singh added that after the govt replaced older sahayak shikshak and primary teacher cadres with the new sahayak acharya cadre in 2022–23, 50,000 posts were sanctioned. Requisitions for 26,000 positions were sent to the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission, with nearly 11,000 filled so far, leaving roughly 39,000 posts vacant across the state.
Nandlal Ravani
Naeem Ansari
