NEWS reports in a local daily mentioned that the government is going to upgrade the status of headmasters of government primary schools to Class II from the existing Class III and increase the salary of assistant teachers soon, officials said. The decision has been made against the backdrop of primary school teachers who have been arguing cogently for five years for their demands to be met. The report mentioned that the Primary and Mass Education Ministry officials said that the latest secretaries committee meeting on administrative development approved to upgrade the head teachers’ status to Class II from the existing Class III and to increase of salary of assistant teachers.
The report stated that the joint secretary (Administration) of the Ministry, Rupan Kanti Sheel, said the process of upgrading the status of the headmasters and increasing the salary of the assistant teachers were in the final phase and the government would issue a circular to this effect very soon.
A total of 60,000 head teachers and 3.5 lakh assistant teachers, including those of the newly nationalised primary schools, would enjoy the benefit.
The report stated that the teachers working in the Govt primary schools have been treated as Class III Government employees since the nationalisation of primary education in 1973.
Now the assistant teachers in government primary schools, who are Class III employees, get a salary which is less than what the government transport drivers, office assistants, steno-typists and computer operators, who enjoy the same status are paid per month.
The head teachers, who are also of the same status, however, are paid a little more than the amount paid to the government drivers or other staff per month.
While it indeed heartening to know that the demands of the primary school teachers have been met it is also uncertain what help this minor increase in salary would do to them, in view of the high levels of continued inflation which are occurring. One thing it will almost certainly do is add further to inflation by increasing the money supply, as it is almost certain that the increase in salaries will not be mitigated by any concomitant increase in productivity. The government should tackle the problem of getting excellent teachers by providing first class training and by hiring the best graduates at the best salaries to get the best possible teaching standards. Then they could have justified any salary increase by showing that productivity had already gone up as teaching standards would also become better, as is the case in Germany and the Nordic countries. This meager increase will do little to assuage the demands of teachers, except perhaps to assuage their mentality from being transferred from second class to first class employees. The teaching profession will continue to attract people with inferior skills and motivation who will only want to make money by having recourse to private tuition while the governments public sector borrowing requirement will only increase. It is a populist measure and will ultimately help nobody. More precisely, the government should also see that with upgradation of the teachers the question of improved quality of education should also get equal importance.
