Kerala to regulate unaided schools

Kerala is planning to reign in private unaided schools that reportedly underpay its staff and withhold benefits due to them.

State Education Minister Abdu Rabb said on Monday that the government would introduce a law to control unaided schools and the cabinet would take a decision on the issue in its next meeting.

He said education department officials would inspect schools from where complaints of underpayment and withholding of benefits have come.

The government does not have control on unaided schools run by religious institutions, organisations, trusts and individuals as such institutions do not receive aid from it.

Despite the institutions collecting large sums as donations and tuition and bus fees from students, they pay meagre salaries to the teachers, who get in the range of Rs 2,500 to 3,000 per month.

Sources said that the managements initially remit salaries prescribed by CBSE and other boards to the staff’s bank acounts, withdraw the amount through the blank cheque they take from the teachers and only depart with the salary they had fixed for them.

The staffs are also denied paid maternity, sick and other statutory leaves. Other financial benefits such as PF and gratuity are denied to them.   
They are also sacked for flimsy reasons without prior notice.

Taking the cue from nurses, teachers of some unaided schools had gone on strike.
Almost all unaided schools are said to be unhappy over the development.