Headmaster cadre should get benefit of backlog for principals’ promotions: Assn

A general house meeting of the Headmasters’ Association Punjab was held at Ludhiana to discuss

its long-pending demands on Saturday.

Giving information in this regard, state president of the association, Kulwinder Kataria and general secretary Jaswinder Singh Bhullar, said an affidavit was given on behalf of the Education Department on May 29, 2018, in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Sushma Sharma (Assistant Director) that up to 2014, 260 lecturers had been promoted as principals in excess of the quota. Even after this, promotions to the post of principal have been continuously taking place from the lecturer cadre till 2022, while only negligible promotions have been made in the headmaster cadre.

It has now been learnt that the department is setting the parameter that the parent cadre of all the currently working principals should be found out and seen as to how many principals promoted from the headmaster cadre and how many principals promoted from the lecturer cadre are currently working and quota for promotion should be determined according to the current situation, which is wrong, association members said, adding that determining the promotion quota in this way is not rational. They also added that as per the orders of the Supreme Court, the backlog regarding promotions can be determined only after examining the past record. Now, if the backlog is determined according to the parent cadre of the working principals, then it will be completely unfair to the headmaster cadre.

“We request you to calculate the backlog from 1986 to 1996 and give us the due benefit of it and according to the number of principal promotions from lecturer from 1996 to 2022. All the headmasters who have exceeded the required experience period as per the departmental rules (about 700-800) should be promoted to the post of principal so that the shortage of principals in

senior secondary schools can be met with,” said

the members.

According to the settled proposition of the law, on changing service rules about the quota for any cadre in promotions by any department, the backlog for any particular cadre cannot be done away with.

The association also unanimously passed a resolution that the grade pay for headmaster cadre should be revised to Rs 6,000 so that the respect and honour of the headmaster cadre can be maintained.