CHANDIGARH: In times when around 500 junior school teachers from Punjab government schools go abroad every year and do not return and almost 1,500 teachers with Junior Basic Training qualifications leave because of poor pay, there are some who return to the fold for the sheer love of teaching.
Narinder Kaur is one such. She taught at Satya Elementary School, Balliyewal, for two years but quit in 2016 because of family problems. In December 2017, however, she was back at work.
“I resigned in March 2016 because of family problems. Now I have re-joined the school because I want to empower the girls through education. The school helped me a lot to develop my skills by holding training sessions. It gave me a chance to enhance my knowledge,” she said.
According to education department officials, teachers who go abroad on leave hardly return as most settle there. “We have been facing this problem for long. Teachers go abroad taking leave for a specific period but don’t return,” an official said.
Another teacher, Chetna, joined Fatehpur school last year after quitting her job in December 2016. She taught at Satya Bharti School for a little over a year starting September 2015. “After leaving Satya Bharti School, I got an opportunity to work with a private school, which offered me higher salary. But after joining that school, I realised that parents paid a lot of money for their children’s study. I feel very bad to experience all that,” she said.
Another young teacher, Rajdeep Kaur, had to quit teaching at Balliyewal school for health reasons. But she joined a school in Khanpur soon after because she wanted to focus on weaker children and help them do well in life. “I am in a noble profession. If I can contribute to society in one way or the other, I will feel satisfied,” she said.
Ishwar Sharma, the headmaster of Government Middle School Lohgarh, Ferozepur, said the reason why teachers quit government schools was the poor pay.
“The pay of teachers in government schools is the main reason why they leave. Whereas a regular teacher gets `60,000 per month, a teacher on contract only gets `10,200. There should be same work, same pay concept. The government should make its policy more welfare-oriented to retain teachers,” he said.