Call to conduct HSS Principal transfers without delay

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Higher secondary school Principals and teachers’ associations have demanded that the general transfer of Principals in government higher secondary schools be conducted at the earliest as the transfer norms have been published.

No general transfer of Principals had been conducted last academic year. Only Principal promotions had been held in March this year to vacancies that had arisen following retirements. However, the transfers for which applications should be called for around April had been delayed as the norms had not been published till now, though these had been finalised after talks with the unions.

Now that the norms had been published, steps should be taken to complete profile updation, invite applications, publish the draft transfer list, examine complaints, and then bring out the final list.

Functionaries of the Kerala Higher Secondary School Principals’ Association said ideally higher secondary school Principal transfers should be held first, followed by Principal promotions, and then higher secondary school teachers transfer. Often, this was not followed, leading to problems.

For instance, a HSS teacher in a subject gets ‘thrown out’ if a teacher teaching the same subject is promoted as Principal to the vacancy there. To prevent such a situation, first Principal transfers should be held and only then teacher transfers be held so that thrown out teachers could get a chance to apply for transfer to a place of their choice.

No transfers were held in 2025-26. Only Principal promotions were held in March since many schools had vacancies. This also allowed many teachers to retire as Principals. However, it was imperative that the Principal transfers be effected without delay this academic year since a number of Principals in districts such as Kannur or Kasaragod wished to shift to their home districts, the Higher Secondary School Teachers’ Association said.

The transfer may also prevent a teacher from being thrown out in case the new Principal reaching the school do