Education Department withdraws list of holidays

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 13

Ending confusion about the holiday entitlement of the government school teachers, the School Education Department today withdrew its recently issued list of local and restricted holidays.

In the holiday chart released on December 22, 2017, the teachers in government schools were entitled to only two local holidays and there was no mention of restricted holidays.

But today, the School Education Department has conveyed to all government schools in the state to avail of any five restricted holidays from the list of 34 restricted holidays.

The schools have been asked to give their preferences about these holidays on the online portal of the department before February 20 and there would be no change in the choice of the restricted holidays later on.

On January 24, The Tribune had reported the confusion among teachers about holiday entitlement after the state government reduced the gazetted holidays from 37 to 20 for calendar year 2018.

Besides 20 holidays, each employee has been permitted to avail of any five holidays from the list of 34 restricted holidays in all departments of the state government. These restricted holidays have been increased from two in 2017 to five in 2018.

While the restricted holidays were increased to five, the Education Department had not announced any increase in the local holidays.

In the absence of any formal announcement by the department about the restricted and local holidays, the district education officers (DEOs) at various places were interpreting things differently.

While the teachers were demanding three restricted holidays and two local holidays to compensate the loss of reduction in the gazetted holidays on the pattern of all government employees in the state, the DEOs in some districts had directed the school heads to adjust any restricted holiday availed of by a teacher against his/her casual or earned leave.

However, ending this confusion today, director of the School Education Department said all schools were entitled to five restricted holidays of their choice from the list of 34 restricted holidays.