Guwahati, March 12: Dispur has agreed to reduce the 10-year eligibility criterion to provincialise the post of teachers to seven years.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has mentioned in the state budget for the year 2013-14 that he had received requests from various quarters to relax the eligibility criterion of 10 years to seven years.

Under the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011, to provincialise the post of a teacher, he or she must be in service for 10 years continuously after receiving concurrence from the government, instead of the date of joining the job.

Many teachers have opposed this provision of the act on the ground that it would demoralise teachers who are imparting education sincerely for several years.

Educational institutions which are aided by the state government are called provincialised institutes and their staff are government employees.

“The official process of receiving governance concurrence takes at least eight years from the date of setting up a college. As experience will be counted from the time of receiving concurrence, service of a teacher from the time of joining the college to receiving concurrence will of no use,” a teacher said.

This will require amendment in the relevant act.

Gogoi said after the necessary amendment in the act, he would consider providing additional funds required for the purpose. An education department official said the development would double the number of provincialised teachers in schools and colleges.

He welcomed the chief minister’s move and said it would attract the younger generation to the teaching profession. In the first phase, which took place last week, 10,000 institutions, starting from lower primary schools to colleges, were provincialised, benefiting more than 25,000 teachers.

By the end of final phase, which is scheduled to take place in 2016, the government is expected to provincialise more than 25,000 institutions benefiting nearly one lakh teachers.

“With Gogoi’s budget announcement, the number of beneficiary teachers will reach nearly two lakh,” a source in Dispur said.

Assam High School Teachers’ Association has welcomed the decision and said many teachers would have quit the profession if the state government remained adamant on 10 years of experience.

All Assam Junior College Association has also welcomed the decision and said it would particularly benefit the junior college teachers.

Before receiving concurrence, a junior college had to go through some formal processes like receiving permission from Assam Higher Secondary Education Council, submit the proposal by the directorate of secondary education to the concurrence committee of the state government and followed by evaluation and scrutiny by the concurrence committee before the final nod.