Haryana govt will accommodate guest teachers in schools in home or nearby districts

GURUGRAM: The state education department has assured the guest junior basic training (JBT) teachers of accommodating them in government schools in their home district or transferring them to schools in the nearest districts in case the former has no vacancies.
The move comes after a delegation of guest teachers recently met the education minister and expressed their displeasure over the recently-concluded transfer drive, which proposed sending scores of them to far-off places, going against the 2019 guest teacher service rules. At the time, the minister had directed officials to adjust them in their home districts on priority.
“While the transfer drive prioritised students, the government does not want teachers to turn bitter over it. So, we received directions to devise a formula to adjust the teachers in their home districts and will soon take action,” said a senior education department official.
Condemning the online transfer policy, guest teachers and their associations across the state have been demanding the cancellation of their transfers. The contention is that they work on one-third salaries of regular teachers, which makes it difficult for them to relocate.
“It is a gross violation of the rules to transfer guest JBT teachers to districts 300-400 km away from their home districts. The rules, finally declared in 2019, say that the government has to accommodate us in our home districts. But it has ignored that and the practical challenges for us,” said Haryana Atithi Teacher Sangharsh Samiti president Maina Yadav.
The guest teachers have also demanded an extension of social security provisions like cashless medical insurance and gratuity. “On Teachers’ Day, the government made a false claim of having implemented the equal work, equal pay rule. In reality, we work just as much as regular teachers but get paid one-third of their salary. Besides, we do not get basic social security privileges,” said organisation’s general secretary Paras Sharma.
“The 2019 service rules also declared such facilities, but three years on, the government is yet to implement them. We demand the government address our grievances, or we will launch a statewide protest,” added Sharma.