Teachers up in arms against government

Our Correspondent

Kapurthala, December 16

Teachers recruited under the alternative inclusive education (AIE), special trainers (STR) and education guarantee scheme (EGS) held a protest today at Shalimar Bagh here demanding the state government to accommodate them in pre-primary classes started under the ‘Parho Punjab, Parhao Punjab’ project.

They said: “The teachers are working on a contractual basis since the past 14 years, and drawing a salary of Rs 5,000.”

The teachers said in the name of salary they were getting a meagre sum of Rs 5,000. However, when it comes to work, the Education Department assigns a number of tasks such as taking care of pre-primary children and teaching them, besides carrying out surveys of students in their respective villages.

The protesting teachers also submitted a demand letter to the Tehsildar, Kapurthala, saying since 2003, they had been working on a contractual basis at government primary schools. After some union members laid down their lives, their salaries were increased in 2014. But they were still getting Rs 5,000 per month.

A member of the EGS AIE /STR Teachers’ Union, Nishant Kumar, said: “The state Education Department has failed to provide any facility at schools at the rural level.” He said many schools of poor villages did not have any regular teacher and were being solely managed either by EGS or AIE teachers, but despite that the government had no plan to accommodate them in pre-primary classes as permanent teachers.

“Though regular teachers are drawing 10 times salary than education providers and EGS volunteers, they choose to stay away from schools in remote areas. The government should realise that meagre salaries of education providers and EGS teachers are the major drawbacks in providing quality education at rural schools,” he added.