Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday issued the first transfer orders for teachers under the new online transfer policy with the click of a button, ensuring total transparency in the system.

Under the new policy of the Department of School Education, approved by the Cabinet in January this year notified in June, all transfers of teaching staff are now being done only online, with no human intervention, thus ending the widespread corruption reported in the matter of such transfers.

The CM said his government planned to extend the policy to other departments, thus ushering in total transparency in their systems too. With the computer-driven system, there was no scope for any bias or prejudice, and the process was designed to award performance, he added.

A total of 11,063 applications were received for transfer, of which orders in the case of 4551 were successfully issued while 6,506 could not be entertained in the first round, an official spokesperson disclosed after the online transfer orders by the Chief Minister.

Schools have been divided into five zones for this purpose, with detailed criteria laid down to decide claims against the transfers. These criteria include the length of service, age, marks for special categories like females, widow, divorcee, unmarried females, differently-abled persons, persons suffering from debilitating disorders, couple cases.

Apart from this, 90 marks have been provided, out of the total 250, for the performance of the teachers, thus making the system totally performance-based.  This includes the results of the teachers, performance as per the Annual Confidential Report etc.  Another 15 marks have been provided in case the teacher enrols his/her wards in a Government school.  This has been provided to motivate teachers to bring their wards to Government Schools, with the aim of improving the quality of education and promote performance.

Certain categories of teachers, however, have been completely exempted from the Transfer Policy on medical grounds, including cancer patients/on dialysis, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Sickle Cell Anemia, Thalassemia etc. As per the policy, once the transfer order is issued and the same is complied with, no fresh transfer will be considered before a teacher spends three years in the new station.  The policy also provides safeguards in case any relative of a teacher runs any private school near his own school. The Department is contemplating the extension of the policy to its non-teaching staff also.