No resolution to special educators’ Secretariat protest

Special educators under the umbrella of the Kerala Resource Teachers’ Association (KRTA) are on an indefinite agitation in front of the Secretariat since Tuesday against the disruption in activities and projects of the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK) owing to non-receipt of Union government instalments for the 2024-25 financial year. They are also seeking an increase in their salary and other benefits that have remained unchanged since 2018.

As many as 2,886 special educators under the SSK work on contract in State schools to provide academic and extracurricular support to differently abled children. With the Union government failing to release its share of the funds for the SSK this academic year, the salary for contract staff of the SSK is being advanced by the State government. The non-receipt of Union government funds is posing a hurdle to an increase in pay that the special educators have been demanding for long.

The special educators say that since 2018 when the Samagra Shiksha scheme came into being, their monthly pay had declined, by nearly ₹4,000 for secondary educators and ₹2,000 for elementary educators. This issue had been brought to the attention of the Union Education Minister in December 2022. His promise that the educators’ pay would be increased after placing the matter in the project approval board had not been realised so far. Considering the increase in living expenses in these six years, a decrease in pay instead of an increase should be rectified. As the Union government was not releasing funds, the State share should be increased.

SC judgement

Another demand of the special educators is their appointment on permanent basis in all schools as per a Supreme Court judgment of 2021. The educators point out that some of them have been working on contract for as long as 23 years. Posts should be created for them in schools and they should be given permanent appointment.

At present, a special educator provides services to two or more schools. However, the State Assembly’s 15th Estimates Committee had recommended that one special educator be posted to each school. Ensuring full-time services would aid early interventions for the benefit of the differently abled children, say the educators.

Other demands of the special educators include leave surrender for them as for other contract staff in SSK, ensuring ESI and PF for them in all districts, increase in travel allowance for home-based education to ₹300, and ensuring proper guidelines for their transfer.