CHENNAI: Over 20,000 teaching and non-teaching staff associated with Samagra Shiksha (SS) scheme are staring at trouble as their September month salary has not been paid yet.
Senior officials from the school education department said the centre has withheld the funds due to the stand-off with Tamil Nadu over the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the salaries would be paid only after the centre releases the fund.Usually, all government employees get the salaries on the last working day of the preceding month.
In January, the project approval board of the Union Ministry of Education sanctioned Rs 3,585 crore to Tamil Nadu for SS for 2024-2025. The funding is as per 60-40 ratio, with centre contributing Rs 2,151 crore and state Rs 1,434 crore.
For four months now, the state has been managing without the Rs 573-crore first instalment usually released by June every year by the centre. Chief Minister M K Stalin, in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had also mentioned that Rs 249 crore from the previous year is pending.
While some initiatives under the scheme in schools were earlier halted over lack of funds, the non-disbursal of salary has exacerbated the trouble with livelihood of thousands of employees at stake now.
According to officials, those affected include staff from the state and district project offices, Block Resource Teacher Educators (BRTEs), part-time teachers, special educators, and other non-teaching personnel.
The permanent employees – BRTEs and officials at state and district project offices – get their salaries on the last day of the month, while rest get it before fifth of every month.
Salary only after centre gives funds: Edu dept
More than Rs 1,000 crore SS fund was earmarked for financial support for teachers this year. About Rs 213 crore was earmarked for programme management.
An office-bearer of the BRTE Association said, “The uncertainty about salary has now added to our trouble. We have commitments like EMIs, loans, and other expenses, and cannot bear this long delay.” The member added that there are around 12,000 sanctioned part-time teacher and 6,000 BRTE posts, but more than 50% of BRTE positions are vacant.
This forces BRTEs to manage additional blocks more than the stipulated norm. “We’ve been urging the education department to post us as graduate teachers due to the overwhelming workload,” the office-bearer added.
Part-time teachers, drawing a modest pay of Rs 12,500, have long been urging the government to regularise their positions. Federation of Part-Time Teachers’ Associations state coordinator S Senthil Kumar said,
“Though our salaries come from central funds, we are appointed by the state. With upcoming festivals like Durga Pooja and Deepavali in October, we have been requesting the state to provide us with salary advances, but there is no clarity on when the September salary will even be disbursed.
The CM should take steps to release our salaries using state funds.” He said the disbursement of salaries for part-time teachers gets delayed at times even when the funds reach districts on time, he added. Department officials said they are still awaiting funds from the centre and would release the salaries only after they receive it.
On September 27, Stalin met Modi in Delhi and submitted a memorandum requesting the release of funds under the SS. He reiterated that TN’s primary issue with signing the MoU for the PM-SHRI scheme lies in the three-language policy stipulated under the NEP.