look news india
A very important and sensitive case related to the rights of teachers, their welfare and the security of their future, who are called the backbone of the Indian education system, has reached the Supreme Court of the country. Sensing the possibility of bringing a big and positive change in the lives of lakhs of private teachers, the Supreme Court has taken strong cognizance of a petition seeking uniform pay scale, pension and other retirement benefits for teachers of private schools across the country. The vacation or special bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta, while hearing this Public Interest Litigation (PIL), has formally issued a notice to the Central Government, all the States, Union Territories and the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE). The court has given clear instructions to all these parties to file their detailed reply in this matter within the next four weeks. This legal step has given a new ray of hope to the families of lakhs of private teachers and those who teach crores of students of the country, because this is the first time that the murmur of policy reform has started so loudly at the court level for this class which has been neglected for decades.
This PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of National Coordinator of ‘All-India Teachers Federation’ Ligimol George through his learned advocate Deepak Prakash, demanding economic and social security of lakhs of teachers teaching in various recognized private schools of the country. The petitioner has emphatically raised this point before the court that in a huge democratic country like India, on one hand, government teachers get all kinds of financial benefits, assured pension, benefit of pay commissions from time to time and other social security cover, while on the other hand, teachers teaching in private schools, despite their qualification and experience, are deprived of all these basic rights. In the petition, it has been demanded from the Supreme Court to direct the Central Government to formulate a comprehensive national policy within a certain time frame for the welfare of teachers of private schools across the country, their working conditions and to make their life secure after retirement. In the present scenario, the situation is that different states of the country and different private institutions have their own rules and conditions, due to which even teachers with similar qualifications get very unequal and low salaries in different institutions, which affects their standard of living.
In the petition, citing various articles and legal provisions of the Indian Constitution, it has been argued that teachers of private schools also perform a very important public function of carrying forward the important constitutional mandate like the right to education for the children of the country under Article 21A of the Constitution. Despite this, there is no uniform and strong central legal framework or national policy for them. Their job conditions entirely depend on state-to-state local laws, selfish practices of school management and the arbitrariness of the institutions. Due to this discrepancy, teachers with the same position and qualification get vastly different benefits in different states and schools. The petitioner has drawn the attention of the court to the fact that the provisions of Articles 38, 39, 41, 42 and 43 falling under the Directive Principles of State Policy of the country guarantee justice, fair working conditions and social security to the citizens, but in the case of teachers in the private sector, these principles are not being followed at the ground level. The court was told that this class of teachers does the most difficult and sacred work of shaping the future generation of the country, hence it is extremely important to have a strong and transparent mechanism on the part of the government to protect their rights and future.
One of the most humanitarian and important aspects of this PIL is related to the health and old age protection of teachers of private schools. The petition highlights the fact that lakhs of teachers teaching in recognized private schools across the country retire after long service without any adequate pension benefits, medical assistance, health insurance protection and disability assistance. Due to these serious shortcomings most of the private teachers are forced to face severe financial constraints and helplessness in their old age or during any emergency medical condition of life. On one hand, the government has created special welfare boards and schemes for the workers of various other organized and some unorganized sectors of the society, while on the other hand, the teachers who feed the country and brighten the future of the children are completely out of this security circle. A comparison has also been made in the petition that just as special welfare arrangements and social security laws have been made for building and other construction workers, beedi workers, cinema workers, fishermen, journalists and various other weaker sections in the country, on the same lines, a separate welfare board or mechanism should be formed at the national level for private teachers so that they do not have to wander from door to door in old age.
Citing official government data in support of the petition, a very broad picture of the country’s education structure has been placed before the court. According to the official UDISE+ 2023–24 data from the Ministry of Education, currently around 14.72 lakh schools are operating across India, serving more than 98 lakh teachers and around 24.8 crore students are pursuing their education in these schools. Among these huge figures, if we talk about the private sector alone, there are 37,30,047 teachers working in the recognized private schools of the country. That means, more than thirty seven and a half lakh teachers are currently handling the private education system of the country, who form a very large part of the total teacher population. Neglecting this teacher class, which educates such a large number of youth of the country, is no less than a blow to the overall education quality of the country. Unless teachers get a financially secure and mentally stress-free environment, they will not be able to contribute to teaching work to their full potential. Now that the Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter and sought a response from the Central and State governments within four weeks, the eyes of private teachers across the country are fixed on what affidavits the governments file in the court and whether these lakhs of teachers will really see a new dawn of equal pay and pension in their lives or not.