Here is a good news for school teachers in Punjab. The state cabinet today regularised the service of 8,886 teachers who were recruited under the central education programmes. The cabinet, Press Trust of India quoted an official as saying, which met under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, decided to regularise 7,356 Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers and 1,194 Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) teachers.
Apart from this, the state cabinet has also regularised 220 model schools teachers and 116 Adarsh schools teachers, the official said.
The state government, under the SSA and the RMSA programme, has been recruiting teachers from time to time to meet the teacher student ratio. Both the programmes are being run under the centrally-sponsored schemes funded by the government of India and the state government in the ratio of 60:40.
Punjab has taken the decision following the recommendations of the cabinet sub-committee constituted on the directives of the Chief Minister in this regard.
The sub-committee had recommended of absorbing these teachers by creating posts in the school education department of the state with a regular pay of Rs. 10,300 per month (initial of the regular pay scale) for the three years. But the Cabinet has decided to pay them Rs. 15,000 instead, the spokesman said.
The cabinet sub-committee comprised Education minister O P Soni, Rural Development & Panchayats minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Local Government minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The probation period of these teachers will be off three years.
“On successful completion of the probation period of three years, their services would be regularised by the department, strictly as per rules,” the education department official said.
The committee also had recommended that seniority of these teachers be determined from the date of regularisation of their services.
A period of 15 days would be given to all such teachers or employees to give their options. In case of those who give options after 15 days, the seniority would be fixed based on the date when such option is received, he said.
Inter-se seniority of all these teachers or employees would be maintained by the department, the spokesman said.
As many as 7,356 teachers have been recruited under the SSA programme (1078 ETT and 6278 master cadre). Similarly, 1,194 teachers, including head masters, have been recruited under the RMSA.
The SSA caters to schools from classes 1 to 8 and the RMSA for classes 9 to 12.
In May this year, Punjab approved a policy for online transfer of government teachers from the next academic session, on the lines of a similar system existing in several other states, including in neighbouring Haryana.
[“source”=CNBC]
