Teachers are not taxi drivers: Dharmendra Pradhan

Slamming the Odisha government's move to appoint retired teachers for temporary filling of vacancies in schools, BJP leader and Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today said teachers should not be hired like drivers of cab services to take classes on call basis.
"Our teachers are not taxi drivers. They cannot be called when required and then asked to leave. There is no dearth of trained quality teachers for imparting education," Pradhan said.
Asking the state government to refrain from playing with the future of students, he said a permanent arrangement must be made for the betterment of students instead of resorting to "teacher on call" plan.

In a bid to fill huge vacancies of teacher posts in primary and secondary schools, the state government recently decided to engage retired teachers.
Taking exception to Pradhan's criticism, state School and Mass Education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the Union Minister should not compare teachers with taxi drivers.
The state government wants to make the system smooth and ensure that studies in schools are not affected, he said.