Ferozepur, May 4, 2013: The Punjab Government Aided School Teachers Union (GASTU) is demanding for the merger of 480 government aided schools since long. But to avoid any litigations is taking the advice of experts or educationists, on the subject, the Punjab Government is processing the merger at a very slow pace rather at tortoise’s speed despite the fact that the government is interested to merge all the private aided schools with the government schools to cope with the shortage of staff.
Speaking to the media, Ajay Thukral, President, GASTU said, “The government should order the nationalisation or privatisation of aided schools like that of banks which used to private and were run by the capitalists only but the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi while nationalising the banks issued a notification that all the employees of the banks will be government employee including the infrastructure and these orders were issued overnight without any notice. Similarly, the government should think over issue of notification on the same lines.”
Expressing concern over non-merging of aided schools, Thukal said, “Parkash Singh Badal is a very seasoned Chief Minister and because of his transparent working and development works in the state, he is being respected by sections of people. The Chief Minister should pursue with the administrative committees of the aided schools to obtain ‘No Objection Certificate” and get it approved from the Cabinet that the buildings of aided schools which are on 99 years lease, are part and parcel of government.
"When the schools, children and employees will be merged in the government schools, the administrative committees should also be merged in the government by appointing them as Caretakers by suffixing the word ‘government’ with the private aided schools."
It is pertinent to mention here that the government is in need of 10,000 teachers in its schools against the existing strength of 4,000 teachers. The government is already paying the 95 per cent for these teachers and by paying another only 5 per cent grant, the problem of shortage of teachers can be easily solved. In the neighbouring states of Haryana and Rajasthan, the grant in aid was only 75 per cent against the 95 per cent in Punjab and by paying another 25 per cent, those states have merged the government aided schools with government schools.
Thukral appealed to the Chief Minister Punjab to take immediate decision with regard to the merger of aided schools as it would be beneficial for the government, teachers, employees and students as well.