In India teachers have always been respected than anybody else in the world. In India Teachers have always been placed first even in comparison to God or parents. However, with privatisation of education and more focus on institute’s brand value rather than quality of teachers, teacher fraternity has lost the respect it once had.
Teachers in India are among lesser paid employees at least in private sector. In most private schools, teachers are paid equal or lesser than fourth grade employees in Govt. sector. Many educational institutes prefer to hire unqualified people as teachers so that they can pay less. Teacher’s are mostly hired on yearly contracts in order to avoid long term benefits like gratuity, pf etc. Not sure how we expect teachers to deliver quality education when they are paid lesser than a Govt. peon. Situation is more bad in small states like Himachal Pradesh. Some private schools pay even lesser than what a daily wager gets in a month. Private school teachers put equivalent effort as Govt. teachers if not more to impart quality education to students and to live up to the expectation of the school management.
When schools and other educational institutes were closed due to Corona Virus, many private schools opted for online classes to impart education to students. Online classes meant a learning curve for teachers and more work than ever to create digital content. However, with may state governments asking schools to defer fee payment until lock down is over, many cash rich schools opted to either put a cut on teacher’s salaries or not pay anything until they receive fee from parents. At the same time parents who are ready to pay Tuition fee don't pay because schools also want them to pay lab fees, misc fee and transport fee for lockdown period as well. In a nutshell, in this scenario as well sufferer is a teacher.
Schools which are supposed to be non profit in India are actually running like a company for profit. In some parts of India where few schools were forced to share their balance sheets, disclosed crores of cash reserves with them.
Why not pay teachers as per 7th Pay commission?
Why schools don’t want to pay salaries equivalent to Govt. school teachers?
It is all because schools are run like a full fledged business meant to report profit to its directors, management team or trust every year. It is because no law that is enforced on schools to do this. Neither CBSE, not state/UT education departments enforce this.
Teachers too scared of their jobs never form unions or complaint against school’s malpractices.
What must change?
Govt. of India, states and other competitive authorities should make such laws-
- Where private school teachers are made regular employees after probation period (say 6 months or 1 year)
- Teachers are paid equivalent to their counterparts in Govt. sector
- Only qualified staff is hired and details are shared with authorities
- Schools are mandated to share their balance sheet every year on their website and with Govt.
- If any school is already cash rich, they should not increase yearly fee more than 5%.
- PTA should be formed in all schools and all parents should be informed regarding PTA participation. PTA should have say in teacher’s salaries
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