Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday offered two-year gainful contractual employment to Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) or Alternative Innovative Education (AIE) teachers in the State Education department.
Acting on the teachers' demand for exempting them from the TET test for providing regular employment in the Education department, Badal said that the State Government would soon take up this matter with the Centre. Taking part in deliberations with the EGS or AIE Action Committee, a body representing these temporary teachers, the Chief Minister said that the State Government was committed to solving problems faced by all the employees and unemployed persons.
He said that to provide economic assistance to the unemployed EGS or AIE teachers, the State Government would provide gainful employment to them for two years on contract basis in the Education department, stated an official release quoting the Chief Minister. However, Badal made it clear that the employment would be given for a period of two years during which these unemployed EGS or AIE teachers would have to appear for the Teacher's Eligibility Test (TET) so as to get regular service in the Education department.
He said that the formalities regarding fixing of salary of these teachers during this contractual service would be decided by a high-level committee comprising Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary, Education, and Financial Commissioner, Rural Development, after consultations with the representatives of unemployed EGS or AIE teachers.
Badal has also deputed Principal Secretary, Education, Anjali Bhanwra to hold the meeting with the Secretary of Education at the Centre to find a viable solution to safeguard the interests of these teachers. Chief Minister urged the EGS or AIE teachers, holding agitation demanding regularization of their services, to call off their stir. "The state government is fully sympathetic towards them and every step would be taken to bail them out from the crisis," he said.
"Rather than creating inconvenience to the public and even to themselves through such stirs, the EGS or AIE teachers should support the State Government for solving their problems in accordance with the stipulated norms," he said.