Delhi: Tenure of 3,700 contractual teachers yet to be renewed

NEW DELHI: The pandemic has dealt a blow to yet another group of teachers, the 3,700-odd educators working on contract in Delhi government and municipal schools. As their contract ended on May 10, they have been without any earnings for more than a month now.
Usually, the contract of such teachers would get renewed on July 1, but with schools closed till July 31 they are staring at an uncertain future.The Delhi Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Teachers’ Association said that many of their members returned to their hometown and started doing menial jobs to eke a living.
Mahendra Singh, a member of the association, said, “I know a teacher who went back to Rajasthan and started doing borewell cleaning. He has become a daily-wage labourer. We haven’t been able to get in touch with him for a long time.” Singh was a teacher at a government school in Rohini.
Contractual teachers have a fixed salary of around Rs 38,000 per month, unlike guest teachers who are paid on a regular basis. Their salary funding is shared between the central and state governments. The members of the association had been regularly meeting education department officials, but nothing materialised due to lack of orders to hire them.
“The officials told us that they were yet to get the minutes of the meeting of the project approval board from the Centre. How long should we wait? Our friends have been forced to work in crop fields. If the government doesn’t act soon, we will hold a protest,” Singh said.
Rukmini, who had been teaching for the past five years at a government school in Harkesh Nagar, said, “We managed this month with my husband’s salary. If the contract doesn’t get renewed, we’ll face a lot of problems.”
An education department official said, “The decision has to come from the central government. Once we get the instructions, we can start renewal of the contracts. Moreover, the schools are closed now and the situation is very fluid. Hopefully, some arrangements will be made for them soon.”