Thursday brought a tide of happiness for the guest teachers as their long-pending demand for hike in their salaries was set rolling by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government. The 17,000 “guest teachers” in Delhi Government schools are finally set to get a whopping 70-100 per cent hike in their salaries. While announcing the decision, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has given his approval to the increase for the ‘guest teachers’ employed in three categories.
The much awaited announcement, warmly greeted by the teaching community, follows a year of back-and-forth negotiations between the Arvind Kejriwal Government and the lt Governor. The salaries would go up from Rs 21,000 to Rs 34,000 a month for Post Graduate Teachers (PGTs), from Rs 18,000 to Rs 33,000 for Trained Graduate Teachers (TGTs) and from Rs 16,000 to Rs 32,000 for primary teachers.
“Now ‘guest teachers’ will be able to lead a dignified life,” he said. “It is a move towards providing quality education. “The revised salaries will be applicable from the date of notification, which will be issued in a day or two.”
The ‘guest teachers’ are on contractual jobs and have been demanding for years that their salaries needed to be brought at par with permanent teachers. Sisodia said the Government was also working on its promise to provide them permanent jobs.
“The file has been sent to the lt Governor and discussions are going on (how to implement it). Till then, it was important to ensure the guest teachers get good salaries so that they live a dignified life,” he said.
Sisodia said the hike was vital to attract talented teachers. “We have built 8,000 new classrooms. A proposal to build 10,000 more is ready. There would be increasing need for quality teachers,” he said.
As he stepped out of the Secretariat after the Press conference, overjoyed teachers virtually mobbed Sisodia. Amid slogans of “Zindabad”, some teachers garlanded Sisodia.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said: “We really struggled hard to get this (through). I am glad it has finally happened.” The Delhi Cabinet had in December finalised the proposal to hike salaries and sent the file to then lt Governor Najeeb Jung.