Anjali R Charak
A famous Hindi poet and saint Kabir once wrote ” Guru Gobind dono khade kake lagu pav, balihar guru aapki Gobind diyo btay” means that if I were to choose between God and my teacher, I would choose the latter. Such is the greatness of a teacher that he comes before God because he is the one who shows us the path towards God. That is what our culture has taught us for ages. Teachers are nation builders. Teachers have the power to revolutionise a whole generation. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ramakrishna Parmahansa, Swami Vivekananda, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan are few such examples. Teaching is not that easy a job. You don’t just have to deliver lectures, you have to shape futures so that your students make a mark in the society. It takes up all your creative and mental and physical energy, though it is thought to be not a very tough and challenging job. That being said, I want to draw the kind attention of everyone towards the discriminatory and disastrous attitude of our government towards 10+2 Lecturers being appointed lately. These lecturers are being appointed under the New recruitment policy SRO-202 of 2015. According to this, the lecturers will be appointed in ZONE-3 (remotest areas of the state) for five years on probation and will be paid basic salary only. The time this policy was implemented, the time period of probation was criticised and so it was decreased from seven to five years but the other grievances were not redressed.
Firstly, not even an army person is made to serve in the remotest parts of J&K for such a long duration of time. We, the appointees, are willing to serve for a year as is the case with our senior lecturers. Serving in areas like Leh and Kargil for such a long duration of time can have serious health issues. Moreover, according to SRO-202 of 2015 we are not going to get any allowances for five years. But no one is concerned about the physical or the mental trauma we are going to face by serving in such areas for such a long time, away from our families, without any facilities and a salary fit for daily wagers only.
Second is the issue of salary. Most of the appointees lie in the age group of 35-40 which means they have a family to support and with this meagre salary it is simply not possible. Also, to live in the remote areas, army men get more money than their peers serving in other areas. In fact, all Government employees are paid extra to serve in such places; ex-MLAs get more than us for serving for just five years; there are so many other examples, however we, unfortunate lots, have been subjected to utter discrimination in this case also where we won’t be paid according to the severity of our service areas. To support our family and live in such remote areas with this meagre salary and no other source of income, is nothing more than a joke that the authorities are cracking.
Thirdly, many other posts were advertised along with ours after the implementation of new recruitment policy 2015 in various departments like health and medical education, judiciary and administrative services but all of them are kept out of the ambit of this policy. Then why are we subjected to such harsh treatment. Aren’t teachers important anymore? What about the future of nation builders? Isn’t this violation of right to equality? What about democracy; of the people, by the people, for the people? The Government is certainly not bothered about us.
Fourth point is that the probation period is just too long. Probation period helps an employer judge the employee if he/ she is capable enough for the job. why does government need five years to evaluate our capabilities. Isn’t one or two year probation enough as is the case with most of the jobs. Haven’t we proven our mettle by acquiring all these degrees and experience and then qualifying the written exam and interview.
We have been running pillar to post just to make sure the concerned people become aware of our predicament but everyone has turned deaf ears towards us. We have gone for peaceful demonstrations and tried to meet many people who can make a difference but none is least bit concerned. Publicly the government makes these tall claims that Education Department has lot of responsibilities towards the society and the government needs to treat well both the students as well as teachers for the better functioning of Education Departments but at ground level the reality is entirely opposite. Our appointments with officials are cancelled without any solid reason and we are insulted in the worst possible manner. If we raise our voice we are asked why we filled up the forms in the first place. Given the employment scenario in our state, most of us didn’t have many options and most of us are in dire need of a job. If this kind of attitude is maintained why would someone want to choose teaching as a career. So, it is our humble request to everyone, to the concerned authorities, to our seniors and to everyone else who can help us in this regard that our case should be considered at least on humanitarian groups keeping in view the practicality of every situation. We have worked so hard and spent so much time and money and energy to attain our degrees (P.G, NET, SET, B.ed, M.Phil, Phd) and experience not to be treated like daily wagers who get approximately the same amount of money that we are going to get(500 rupees a day, 15000 a month). We hope that our hardwork and future will not be sacrificed for the sake of saving money or whatever reasons the authorities have for subjecting us to this kind of injustice.
(The author is Member, Newly appointed 10+2 Lecturers forum)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel