The Hindu : Kerala News : ‘Law needed to protect unaided schoolteachers’

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Wednesday, Nov 21, 2007
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Kerala

‘Law needed to protect unaided schoolteachers’

Staff Reporter

Unaided schools give low wages: Kodiyeri

KASARAGOD: The State needs to enact a law to define the wages and service conditions of teachers of unaided schools, Minister for Home Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said.

He was inaugurating a vehicle rally of the Kerala School Teachers’ Association (KSTA) here on Monday.

Mr. Balakrishnan said unaided schools were giving very low wages to teachers. Many of the teachers were working in dismal conditions. There are allegations that a kind of slavery existed in several unaided schools, he said.

Unaided school managements were hostile to all kinds of government interference in the matter as it would lower their profits. But the government would go forward with its efforts despite opposition from traders in the education sector, Mr. Balakrishnan said.

Referring to the initiatives of the government in reforming the Kerala education rules and Act, Mr. Balakrishnan said it was a social need. The education sector would not progress if teachers followed age-old practices. The government would finalise reforms only after discussions with organisations of teachers and other organisations in the education sector, he said.

On the criticism that local bodies had gained control over educational institutions, Mr. Balakrishnan said it was a result of the 73rd and the 74th Constitution amendments.

He said he failed to understand why those who kept mum when the amendments were made were raising objections now.

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