Nursery Training Certificate Not Equivalent To Basic Teachers Training Certificate For Post Of Assistant Teachers: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court held that the Nursery Training Certificate is not equivalent to the Basic Teachers Training Certificate for the post of Assistant Teachers for Classes I to V.

The Court dismissed a set of petitions challenging non-appointment as Assistant Teachers on grounds of lack of essential qualifications. The interim order directing to declare results was challenged by the State and affirmed by the Appellate Court.

The Bench of Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery observed, “a bare consideration of standards of course material of Certificate Training (Shishu Shiksha) and Basic Teacher Certificate are sufficient to observe that course material of Basic Training Certificate is proposed for purpose of teaching upto Class-V, whereas course material of CT (Shishu Shiksha) would be limited to pre-school i.e. up to class-II only”.

Senior Advocate Ashok Khare appeared for the Petitioners and Additional Chief Standing Counsels RN Pandey and Shashi Prakash Singh appeared for the State.

The Petitioners held a Certificate in Nursery Training Examination, 2013 (Nursery Training Certificate) issued by the Examination Regulatory Authority (Authority) and also cleared the Uttar Pradesh Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) in 2013. Despite their qualifications, they were not appointed as Assistant Teachers, allegedly because they did not possess the essential qualification of completing a two-year BTC Course or Special BTC Course as required by the notification/advertisement dated October 17, 2013.

An interim order was issued on September 25, 2024, directing the declaration of the petitioners' results and the issuance of appointment letters if their aggregate scores exceeded the cutoff merit. However, the State challenged the interim order which was upheld by the Division Bench. Aggrieved, the Petitioners approached the High Court challenging the impugned judgment.

The Court framed the following issue: “Whether Nursery Training Certificate is equivalent to Diploma in Elementary Education and subsequent notification and whether it is also equivalent to Basic Teachers Training Certificate for purpose of minimum qualification for post of Assistant Teacher in primary school (class I to V) run by Basic Education Board?”

The Court noted that the main argument put forth by the petitioners was that the minimum qualification prescribed by the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) under the National Council for Teachers Education (Amendment) Act, 2011, through a notification, should prevail regardless of any minimum qualification set by a state for the appointment of Assistant Teachers.

The Court observed, “petitioners have not brought on record details of study material/syllabus of referred examination in order to show that it would sufficient upto class-V also, whereas the Basic Teacher Certificate course has extensive study material much more than C.T. (Shishu Shiksha)”.

However, the Bench, upon examining the course materials of Certificate Training (Shishu Shiksha) and Basic Teacher Certificate, observed that the Basic Training Certificate curriculum was designed for teaching up to Class-V, whereas the Certificate Training (Shishu Shiksha) curriculum was limited to preschool education, up to class-II only.

Therefore, the Court held that the comparison of course materials shows that Certificate Training (Shishu Shiksha) does not equate to the minimum qualification of BTC required for the appointment of Assistant Teachers.

Accordingly, the Court dismissed the Petitions.

Cause Title: Mala Yadav v State Of UP (2024:AHC:26366)

Appearance:

Petitioner(s): Senior Advocate Ashok Khare and Advocates Himanshu Singh, Ajay Kumar Mishra, Abhishek Kumar Yadav, Shantanu Khare, Chandan Sharma, Prabhakar Awasthi, VK Yadav and Siddharth Khare

Respondent(s): Additional Chief Standing Counsels RN Pandey and Shashi Prakash Singh with Standing Counsels Ashish Kumar Nagvanshi, Ravi Prakash Srivastava, Shruti Malviya and Survesh Srivastava and Advocates AK Yadav, Archana Singh, BP Singh, Vikram Bahadur Singh, Bhanu Pratap Singh, Mohd Shere Ali and Shivendra Singh Bhadauriy

Click here to read/download Judgment