CHANDIGARH: Even as Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced a Teacher’s Day gift by implementing UGC’s pay scale as per the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for all college teachers, about 13,200 school teachers make do with meagre monthly salaries ranging between Rs 6,000 and Rs 11,000.
While Mann said that the decision will come into force from October 1, he sought to strike an emotional chord with the teachers, adding that as a son of a teacher he was well aware of the problems faced by them. Asserting that the objective of imparting quality education to students would be achieved by the state government’s decision to recruit guest faculty, Mann said the honorarium for this category of teachers would be hiked.
On the other hand, however, some 13,200 voluntary teachers – the data was compiled by the Democratic Teachers’ Front – were hired on a contractual basis but in reality end up working full-time, with their pay ranging anywhere between Rs 6,000 and Rs 11,000 per month.
These teachers work under the Alternative Innovative Education (AIE) and Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS). While a special trainer get Rs 6,000 per month, a simple graduate education provider earns Rs 8,500, those who possess BA and Bed degrees make Rs 9,500 and a teacher who has an MA-Bed gets Rs 11,000. The vast majority of them have been working for the last 10-15 years.
DTF President Digvijay Pal Sharma told TNIE that “neither the Congress nor the SAD-BJO and nor even the AAP government has helped these teachers or given them any relief. Their workplaces are hundreds of kilometres from their homes and most of them are in the 40-45 year age category, but they have not been regularised till date”.
Sharma said that some 15,000 posts of teachers in primary schools are lying vacant as most of the primary teachers are hired on contract but are working full-time. The previous governments had announced hiring 8,300 pre-primary teachers, but to date no recruitments have been done. Also, 500 posts of school heads are also lying vacant. Some 7,000 computer teachers have been employed by floating a society but they have not been merged in the education department. They are not eligible for any post-retirement benefits.
Salary woes
About 13,200 school teachers make do with meagre monthly salaries ranging between `6,000 and `11,000 in the state