Schoolteachers stage protest, seek regularisation of services

Patiala, August 20

Members of the Model Adarsh Schools’ Karamchari Association staged a state-level protest in Patiala, demanding regularisation of services of the contractual staff. Teachers, along with their family members, participated in the protest and demanded that the government take control of Adarsh Schools and bring the staff of the schools under the Education Department.

The protesters urged the the state government to remove private companies from all Adarsh Schools as 70 per cent of the money to run these schools has been already paid by the government.

State president of the union Amritpal Singh Sidhu said that the Union Government had introduced the Adarsh Schools scheme in 2010 to uplift the standard of education in the underprivileged families.

“But, the then state government hired the staff on contractual basis on nominal salaries and around half of the staff members have left the jobs due to low wages and many of us have been terminated by the outsourced companies,” he said.

 He added that the government should take legal action against companies for terminating the services of teachers without valid reasons.

The chairman of the union, Ramesh Makar, said that the government was planning to open new English medium schools but on the other side, the Adarsh Schools were paying for the apathy of the government.

He said around 11,000 students from underprivileged families were studying in these schools but the government had neglected the schools as almost all of them were facing the staff crunch.

“Students should also get all facilities and a probe should be conducted into allegations of financial irregularities at all schools,” the leaders said. — OC