Needed: Relief package to teachers

Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar’s request to government school teachers to forgo five days of salary and donate it to their counterparts in private schools who are in distress is illogical, impractical and devoid of any merit. Besides, this amounts to a total abdication of its responsibility by the government which should have on its own evolved a long-term package to enable teachers tide over the crisis. Why should the government teachers, or for that matter any other government employee, pay for others, even if it is one day’s pay?

The private school teachers, while rejecting this move, have said they are disappointed with the way the government is treating them. The one-time dole of Rs 5,000 per head recently announced by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa will serve little or no purpose as teachers in unaided institutions have been struggling for about a year now to make both ends meet with salary cuts or no payments at all. While some high-end private schools are flush with funds, a majority of private institutions which receive no aid from the government are struggling for survival with no resources to pay their teachers or even utility bills. Referred to as budget schools, their imminent closure in the failure of any proactive measures by the government, will spell doom for lakhs of students from the lower strata of society who depend on them for their education.

While it is common for employees to donate one day’s salary during any national calamity, government teachers do not earn such a huge package. The government which was liberal in splurging funds on caste-based boards and corporations should find its own means to provide for the livelihood of the pillars of our education system who mould our children for the future. Funds under various schemes like free bicycle, uniforms and shoes besides the Teachers Benefit Fund which are lying unutilised, should be used for the welfare of teachers.

However, a long-term solution would be for the government to strengthen the public education system by providing access to free and world-class learning to the poorest of the poor, so that the dependence on private schools is reduced. For that, the state should first increase its spend on education from the current 11 per cent of the budget to at least 25 per cent on the lines of Delhi. In the interim, the government should announce a relief package to enable teachers to sustain at least till schools reopen and pull all stops to ensure that they live a life of dignity, not that of pecuniary and squalor.