Team Herald
MARGAO: The aided schools and the staff are in a quandary as the Directorate of Education asked the school managements and societies to pay the salaries to their staff from their coffers.
There has been widespread discontent over this order though the DoE claims that it is purely due to the closure of the department as COVID positive cases are traced. Some schools have denied paying salaries to the staff.
Education Director, IAS, Vandana Rao, issued a circular to all the schools stating that due to the staff, who prepares the salary bills, having been asked to quarantine, the process of releasing the salaries would be delayed.
The Department has also clarified that the bills would be processed once the staff rejoin and salaries would be released. However, there are some schools, who have directly sent messages to their staff that they won’t be paying them for the month of June. Three schools from Margao said that they don’t have that kind of money to pay salaries to the staff.
Every school on an average pays salaries through government grants to the tune of Rs 25 to 35 lakh. The staff after being told that they won’t get their salaries next month has panicked.
A teacher on condition of anonymity said, “We have loans, we have payments to do and families to be looked after.”
“How would it go well if the schools and the department take such decisions,” asked the teacher.
Chairman of New Education Institute of Curchorem Pradeep Kakodkar said that this decision by the government is laughable.
“It only proves that the government has come to a bankruptcy. A highly paid teacher may be able to bear the shock of no salary but for the less paid staff of the schools, they are going to have a tough time,” Pradeep said.
Chairman of Nirakar Education Society Prashant Naik said, “This is totally unwarranted and it appears that the government is totally bankrupt. No school management is in a position to pay the salaries to their staff on their own.”
“Ponda MLA Ravi Naik, Subhash Shirodkar, Laxmikant Parsekar and even Rajendra Arlekar have education institutions,” he reminded.
