Punjab: Battling financial pressure and uncertainty, teachers working in aided schools in Punjab have not received their salaries for the past four months. This is the second time teachers have not been paid. Last year, teachers of aided schools had received their salaries with a delay of five months. In an emergency meeting held in Amritsar, the Aided School Teachers Association demanded accountability from the education department and Education Minister Harjot Bains, who has promoted the Sikhya revolution in the state. “Aided schools have not received salary grants (95 per cent) from the state government for the past four months, while C&V (crafts and vocations) teachers of aided schools have been waiting for their salaries for the past 16 months. Out of the 9,468 sanctioned posts of regular teachers in aided schools, 8,110 posts are vacant. Though the Punjab government talks of an education revolution in the state, thousands of teachers of these schools in the state are struggling to arrange two meals a day for their families,” said Ajay Chauhan, a teacher at DAV School, Hathi Gate, and secretary of the Aided School Teachers Association. Aided school teachers recruited before April 2003 receive salaries under the “Grant-in-Aid” scheme, where the state government bears 95 per cent of their salary while the school management contributes the remaining five per cent. The last payment was to be made in 2024, but this year the salaries have been withheld once again due to non-receipt of grants.
In the past few years, state-aided schools have been struggling with lack of infrastructure and teachers. State president of Punjab Government Aided School Teachers’ Association Gurmeet Singh Madnipur said aided schools in Punjab came into existence in 1967 and were centres of excellent education till 2003. In 2003, the state government imposed a ban on the recruitment of teachers. Madanipur said, “Over the past few years, the number of schools in Punjab has dropped to 400, of which 53 are in Amritsar. Today, the number of teachers in the state has come down to 1,300, with some schools running with just one regular teacher. The management is also facing a financial crisis due to a drop in student enrolment and the state government does not provide any grants or assistance for the development and maintenance of infrastructure of these schools.” The teachers are now demanding that either salaries be paid or the aided schools be merged with government schools as this is their only way of survival. “We have taken loans and cannot afford to lose our savings to pay EMIs. The financial stress is now humiliating and depressing. The government has to find a solution,” said Jaswinder Singh, president of the Aided School Teachers Association of Amritsar. Teachers of aided schools will gherao the DPI office on August 12. “If these issues are not resolved, strict action will be taken, for which the Punjab government will be responsible.”
