Call to make HSS principal transfers right away

Principals of higher secondary schools and teachers’ associations are demanding that the general transfer of principals in government higher secondary schools should take place at the earliest after the publication of transfer norms.

There was no general transfer of principals in the last academic year. Only major promotions took place in March this year for vacancies created after retirement. However, the transfers, for which applications should be sought around April, have been delayed because the standards have not yet been published, even though they were finalized after negotiations with unions.

Now that the norms have been published, steps should be taken to complete the profile update, invite applications, publish the draft transfer list, investigate the complaints and then issue the final list.

Officials of the Kerala Higher Secondary School Principals’ Association said that ideally, transfers of higher secondary school principals should be done first, followed by promotion of principals and then higher secondary school teachers. This was often not followed, leading to problems.

For example, an HSS teacher in a subject will be “fired” if the teacher teaching the same subject is promoted as Principal to fill the vacancy there. In order to avoid such a situation, the transfer of the principal should be done first and then the transfer of the teachers, so that the fired teachers get a chance to request a transfer to a place of their choice.

No transfers were made in 2025-2026. In March, only the promotion of the principal took place, as many schools had vacancies. This also allowed many teachers to retire as principals. However, according to the Higher Secondary Teachers’ Association, it was necessary for the transfers of principals to take place immediately in this academic year as a number of principals in districts like Kannur or Kasaragod wanted to move to their home districts.

Reassignment can also prevent a teacher from being fired if the new principal who comes to the school does not teach the same subject as the teacher, the association said.

Steps should also be taken to transfer teachers to upper secondary schools.

Published – 11 Jun 2026 19:01 IST