Malerkotla: Physical education and art teachers of aided schools have not received salary for months

Punjab: Certain categories of classical and vernacular language teachers employed in government-aided private schools have been working without salaries for seven months. The reason cited behind the sudden stoppage of payment of salaries in a particular grade from March 2024 was the non-issuance of a circular thirteen years ago. The affected teachers, led by PTI’s Pawan Sharma, said the education department has stopped their salaries despite no fault of theirs, while they have been receiving salaries in the grade pay of Rs 4400 from October 2011 to February 2024. “Whenever activists of the Government Aided Private School Teachers Association led by Hardeep Singh Dhindsa approached education department officials, they were told that salaries cannot be paid until the finance department clears the bills,” he said. He said the officials insisted on issuing a circular, which should have been issued in October 2011. The teachers wonder how the department continued to pay salaries as per the increased pay grade of Rs 4,400 for thirteen years without receiving the said circular. “Strangely, many teachers of our category have retired after getting retirement benefits with the pay scale of Rs 4,400 instead of the earlier grade of Rs 3,200. Our counterparts in government schools, whose salaries are equal to those of government-aided teachers, have also started getting salaries as per the Sixth Pay Commission,” said another teacher Karamjit Singh. The teachers said that the education department officials were also threatening to cut the difference in the pay that was being paid for thirteen years, though no such deduction was ever made. They said that the department intends to reduce the grade from Rs 4,400 to Rs 3,200, which according to the teachers is a violation of the existing service rules. The teachers said that they would agitate if the arrears of seven months were not paid.