Team Herald
PANJIM: Around 14 teaching and non-teaching staff of People’s High School for Appropriate Learning have threatened to move the court if People’s Education Trust fails to release their salaries, that are pending for the last four months.
The staff alleged that the school management has deliberately held back the salaries without citing any reason. “The trust is taking revenge on the staff because we had refused to intervene in a matter that involved parents and the school management,” a faculty member alleged.
The aggrieved staff members are contemplating moving the High Court of Bombay at Goa, which has been confirmed by their lawyer Saish Mhambre. “We will file a writ petition if the trust fails to release payments to the staffers by Friday,” he said.
The school had recently shifted classes for the differently-abled children from the ground floor to the first floor at their existing infrastructure in Panjim. The issue triggered from here when the trust allegedly asked the teachers to convince the parents to adjust with the changes, which was not heeded.
“The parents had expressed their displeasure over shifting the classes to the first floor because their children would be subjected to inconvenience. The school management then asked the teachers to intervene in the matter but the latter refrained from doing so,” he said.
Sources said this soured relations between the staff and the trust. Sources said the managing committee subsequently took a step that was not taken in good taste by the trust after which the salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staffers were stopped.“The trust wrote to the bank that it should not release salaries of the staff although the Education Department, which was requested to intervene had cleared the papers,” an official alleged.
A senior education official has confirmed the differences in the school and stated that they will approach the concerned bank on Wednesday to ensure the teachers get the salaries.
No school official was available for comment.
