The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : SSA special teachers not paid for months

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 08, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

SSA special teachers not paid for months

Meera Srinivasan

CHENNAI : About six months' salary is pending for some of the special educators working under the State Government's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme. The teachers are part of the Integrated Education of Disabled (IED) programme.

In 1974, the Central government decided to integrate children with special needs with their counterparts in mainstream schools. To this effect, they launched the IED programme, which is now a component of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme.

Officials in Tamil Nadu opted to hire the services of special educators of different non-governmental organisations in order to implement the IED programme. The government and the NGOs agreed on an arrangement according to which they would pay the NGOs. The NGOs, in turn, would pay their special educator working for the government. However, special educators from different parts of the State have been complaining that they have not been receiving their salary on time.

"I have been working for the last six months without receiving a penny," said Sakila from Tirunelveli. A special educator in Ambasamudram, who did not wish to be named, said he received his salary for March and April just last week. "I am yet to receive the salary for June, July and August," he said. Some of them alleged that the block level and district level coordinators denied any information regarding the matter.

"My district coordinator refuses to even listen. I visit about 45 schools. There is so much of travelling and running around involved but there is no one to empathise with us," said yet another educator from Virudunagar.

Another teacher from Tirunelveli said he had not received his salary for the last six months. "I took up this profession in order to serve special children. I get immense satisfaction, no doubt. But my family depends on my monthly income," he said.

When they asked their respective NGOs, they were told that the salaries had not been sent across. They feel the lack of a transparent system has made things worse.

"We serve the government but are not permanent staff of the government. We cannot fight with our NGOs because tomorrow, when the government decides to do without us, we have no other choice but to go back to our NGOs," explained a special educator from Nagercoil. When contacted, officials in charge of implementation of the project said they also received a few such complaints. The matter will be looked into and immediate action will be taken, a senior official said.

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