Punjab govt announces regularization of over 5k teachers, 650 nurses

Acceding to the long-pending demand of contractual teachers, the Punjab cabinet approved the regularisation of 5,178 teachers with full pay scale on Wednesday. Besides, the cabinet also regularised 650 nurses of the health department as per the department's probation rules, according to an official release here.

Of the 5,178 teachers, 5,078 were recruited in the master's cadre and 100 as classical and vernacular teachers by the education department in 2014, 2015 and 2016. They will get full pay scale with effect from October 2019, the release said.

The cabinet has also reduced the probation period from three years to two years, it said. Further, the teachers would be assigned seniority from the date of completion of their probation period. These teachers are currently paid Rs 7,500 per month and their salary would be now fixed at the minimum of grade pay which is Rs 15,300 per month till the time they are given full scale, the release said.

The government has formed an eight-member committee of teachers' union leaders and senior officers to look into the other demands of teachers, including full pay scale to 8,886 teachers of Adarsh schools, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). "This committee will submit a report to the cabinet sub-committee within three months and thereafter, the cabinet sub-committee will examine it and submit it to the cabinet for final approval," said Education Minister O P Soni told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

Teachers have been protesting against the state government, demanding regularisation of their services and full pay scale. Nurses have also been demanding regularisation of their jobs.

(With inputs from agencies.)