The 55-year-old from Dhital-1 who joined Baraha Secondary School as a geography graduate in 1978 has now returned to the school after teaching in three other schools. In between he even became principal for about three years over two spell but all that has meant nothing for him in the long run.
“I was made a stopgap principal when needed and had to make way when a permanent principal came,” he says. He has had several opportunities to become permanent, but he could never get past the interview after passing written examinations on each occasion, while others were spoilt by political volatility. The first chance in 1979 slipped due to the referendum while another in 1992 also did not materialize.
He passed written examinations of Teachers´ Service Commission on five occasions between 1981 and 2002 but could not get through the interview. Teachers were made permanent through interview without giving written examinations in 1980 and 1992, but he was not selected for interview on either occasion. “Politics has proved a huge detrimental factor in my career,” he rues.
The baffling thing is, in the three-decades of his service he was never adjudged incompetent nor was made permanent as a reward for his competence. “I could have chosen alternative professions if I were dismissed in the first few years of service,” he says.
His students even became principals and presidents of school management committees at the school he was teaching but he has remained temporary forever. “We are hurt by the government´s apathy toward the teacher who showed us the way,” laments Gautam´s ward Yogaraj Poudel, who teaches English at the Prithvi Narayan Campus in Pokhara.
All this injustice has put him at the forefront of the movement of the temporary teachers. He is currently serving as the central vice-president. He refused to become president of the movement because the position requires frequent travel to the capital. “I am fed up with my struggle and there is not much I can gain through this movement. But the determination that other young teachers should not suffer my fate drives me now,” Gautam reasons.
Gautam says that there are around 40,000 temporary teachers in the country out of whom about 17,000 are on government´s payroll while the rest are on relief and private resources. The Ministry of Education has made repeated commitments to address the issue but has fulfilled none, he said. “The policy of making mere commitments has created confusion in the education sector of the country,” Gautam feels.
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