Teachers at Punjab’s Meritorious Schools have expressed strong opposition to the state government’s latest move to regularise them within the Society for Promotion of Quality Education for Poor and Meritorious Students of Punjab, instead of absorbing them into the Punjab School Education Department as promised over the years.
The issue came to the fore after the Society issued a letter on 25 June directing contractual teaching and non-teaching staff to submit their consent through a Google Form for regularisation within the Meritorious Society by 30 June.
Teachers have criticised the move, saying they have spent more than a decade working on contractual terms without annual salary increments, allowances or other basic service benefits. Many of them are PhD holders and NET-qualified professionals, who were recruited through a regular selection process after clearing the requisite examinations.
Despite repeated assurances from successive governments that they would be absorbed into the School Education Department, they continue to serve as contractual employees, the teachers said.
Dr Tina, president of the Meritorious School Teachers Union, said the issue dates back to 2018, when the Punjab Government invited options from teachers of SSA, RMSA, Modern and Meritorious Schools for absorption into the School Education Department.
“Subsequently, around 8,886 teachers from SSA, RMSA and Modern Schools were absorbed, but Meritorious School teachers were excluded despite submitting their options,” she alleged.
According to Dr Tina, the Aam Aadmi Party government also assured teachers after assuming office in 2022 that they would be regularised within 100 days.
“More than four years have passed, but that promise remains unfulfilled. Instead, the government is now asking us to consent to regularisation within the Meritorious Society rather than the School Education Department,” she said.
The union has also questioned the process adopted by the government, claiming that consent is being sought through a Google Form instead of a formal notification or policy document.
“The form provides only a ‘Yes’ option for regularisation within the Meritorious Society. There is no provision to disagree, nor have any terms and conditions of the proposed regularisation been shared with us,” Dr Tina claimed.
The union maintained that teachers recruited through the Directorate of Education Recruitment under the same recruitment rules as government lecturers should be absorbed into the School Education Department. It has also renewed its demand for the release of pending annual increments and salary arrears.
The teachers’ demands come despite the consistent academic performance of Punjab’s Meritorious Schools, whose students have secured impressive results in recent years, with hundreds qualifying examinations such as NEET, JEE Main, JEE Advanced and the CMA examination.
