SHIMLA: After a wait stretching over two decades, hundreds of physical education degree holders in Himachal Pradesh have finally got a fresh ray of hope as the Directorate of Education has initiated the batch-wise recruitment process for 355 posts of Physical Education Teachers (PETs) in government schools.
The Directorate has scheduled counselling for June 3 and 4 across the state to fill the long-pending vacancies. The move comes at a time when as many as 1,011 PET posts are lying vacant in government schools, badly affecting sports and physical education activities.
For many DPEd, DPE and physical education degree holders, the announcement marks the end of years of uncertainty.
Several candidates who completed their qualifications in 2000 and later said they had spent more than 21 years waiting for recruitment to begin.
Many aspirants have now crossed even 50 years of age while waiting for government jobs.
Candidates said the revival of batch-wise recruitment has rekindled hopes among unemployed trained youth who had almost lost faith after years of delay.
The Education Directorate has also introduced a major relief measure in the counselling process this time. Candidates will now need to attend counselling only in their home districts instead of travelling across multiple districts.
They can submit their order of preference for other districts through a prescribed form. Earlier, aspirants had to personally visit different districts for counselling, leading to heavy financial burden and logistical hardships.
The new system is expected to make the recruitment process smoother and more transparent. District-wise breakup of the 355 PET posts includes Kangra with the highest 75 posts, followed by Mandi 62, Shimla 42, Una 39, Sirmaur 30, Chamba 29, Kullu 24, Hamirpur 18, Solan 14, Bilaspur 10 and Kinnaur 7 posts.
