Kerala Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said the government would consider a review of the service and wage conditions of pre-primary employees of government schools who are being remunerated by parent-teacher associations (PTAs) in the State.
He was responding to a calling attention motion moved by E. Chandrasekharan (CPI) in the Kerala Assembly on Tuesday. Mr. Chandrasekharan highlighted the plight of numerous teachers and ayahs of pre-primary classes that were launched by PTAs after December 7, 2012 at their own expense. While 2,115 pre-primary schools were directly run by the Government in Kerala, no pre-primary classes launched by PTAs of government schools have been granted approval since the particular date following a government order.
In addition to unreasonable remuneration and the absence of proper service conditions, such employees have also been unable to avail themselves of the training conducted by the General Education Department for pre-primary employees. The teachers have also not been receiving the handbook published by the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT). The situation threatened to affect the quality of education imparted to pre-primary students, Mr. Chandrasekharan said.
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According to Mr. Sivankutty, the government had decided to restrict pre-primary schools only after prior approval to check their proliferation and to prevent a deterioration of standards by hiring unqualified teachers.
Monthly honorariums
Nevertheless, the government has been providing monthly honorariums of ₹12,500 for teachers with more than 10 years of service, ₹12,000 for those having lesser service, ₹7,500 for ayahs with over 10 years of service and ₹7,000 for others, he said.
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The Minister, however, added the government was not currently pursuing any step to grant approval to pre-primary schools launched by the government PTAs after 2012.