CHENNAI: Government teachers across the state have urged the school education department to provide increments to around 8,000 teachers who completed their degrees and submitted applications before March 2020. They also requested the government to reintroduce increments as the incentive scheme would only demotivate teachers from studying further.
Earlier, the teachers got six per cent increments twice on their basic pay for pursuing higher education while in service. In 2020, the government said the teachers would be given a one-time incentive of up to Rs 25,000 for completing a degree instead of increments.
“DMK had then said that modifying this scheme was unfair as the scheme was introduced by DMK stalwart CN Annadurai to encourage teachers to keep studying. They also assured us that the scheme would be brought back once they came to power,” said Perumalsamy, president of Tamil Nadu PG Teachers’ Association.
The teachers had also urged the government to first clear the applications of more than 8,000 teachers who had completed their degrees and applied for the increments before March 10, 2020, the date when the government order changing the norms was issued by the AIADMK government.
“The school education minister repeatedly assured us that these applications submitted beforehand would be cleared. However, the government has released a government order stating that only one-time payments would be given to all the applications that are pending,” said a member of the Directly Recruited Post Graduate Teachers Association.