New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced a substantial hike in the salaries of guest teachers in government schools, a move that is expected to benefit around 17,000 teachers.
Kejriwal made the announcement at Chhatrasal stadium at Model Town here where he was addressing the heads as well as the guest teachers of government schools.
"Primary teachers, who earlier got Rs 17,500 a month, will now get Rs 32,200. Similarly, the salary of TGTs (Trained Graduate Teachers) has been increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 33,120 and of PGTs (Post Graduate Teachers) from Rs 22,500 to Rs 34,100," he said, adding that guest teachers will now get the same facilities as regular teachers.
"Two years ago we had made two promises. One to make guest teachers permanent and the other to give equal pay for equal work," the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.
He added the government wanted to make the announcement before Diwali but had to wait due to "resistance by the system to the government's move".
He said that the government has now sent the file to the Lt Governor for his approval.
"We will make sure, salary hike and proposal of making guest teachers permanent is approved by the LG at the earliest," Kejriwal said.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the hike in salaries was just the first step to bring a revolution in education system of Delhi.
"We want to change the lives of 16 lakh students who study in government schools...we are already working on construction of 8000 classrooms which will be ready by March 2017. We have decided to build 8,000 more classroom taking the total count to 16,000," he said.
After the event, hundreds of guest teachers staged a protest against Kejriwal outside Chhatrasal stadium blocking the Ring Road which led to huge traffic jam.
The protesting guest teachers - both male and female - raised slogans against Kejriwal and said they were disappointed with the government.
"We came here with hopes that the government will make some announcement about implementation of the order regarding our salary hike but they made us wait for several hours just to tell the same thing which we have been hearing for last two years," Ramveer Singh, a guest teacher at a government school in Najafgarh told IANS.
Another protesting guest teacher S.K. Singh told IANS that the government do not need Lt Governor's approval for so many other things but when it comes to teachers' rights they make the execuse of it.
Kejriwal later told reporters that it was not the guest teachers who staged the protest but the "BJP goons".