No order to stop primary teachers' salaries yet

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Oct 31: The chairman of the district primary school council in Malda, Mr Uttam Sarkar, said today the government has not yet issued any order to stop salary for the primary teachers who were appointed as trained teachers in the last few years.

The DPSC chairman acknowledged that hundreds of teachers are worried about their "uncertain future" following the Calcutta High Court declaration of 138-odd primary teachers’ training institutes in West Bengal illegal.

“A rumour is being spread like wildfire that their salary would be stopped and they will be sacked later,” he said. Since 2004 hundreds of trained teachers were appointed in this district who secured their degrees from primary teachers’ training institutes which are presently illegal. “If we follow the High Court verdict, their salary should be stopped and their appointment would be cancelled. But the council does not receive any such government order for execution,” Mr Sarkar said.

In Malda, state government's Sovanagar primary teachers’ training institute could not manage accreditation from the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). A team from NCTE in Bhubaneshwar came to the Sovanagar primary teachers’ training institute and suggested some changes to achieve the accreditation after expressing dissatisfaction over the present infrastructure of the institute. The NCTE had said the main gate of the institute is narrow, it should be extended so students can move out in case of any fire incident within the institute, an education official said.

Thousands of candidates had completed training from this institute in the last few decades and they are working in many primary schools.

Such trained teachers are worried about their fate and hoping for a positive decision following a media report that the Centre promised to find a solution when school education minister Mr Partha De met Union human resource development minister Mr Arjun Singh in New Delhi yesterday. Chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had also requested the external affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee to resolve the row.