The Gujarat government, on Wednesday, has withdrawn the recently issued controversial order that mandated 8 hours of duty every day for primary school teachers as per the Right to Education Act after objections from the school teachers’ body.
The Directorate of primary education earlier this month had issued an order asking the primary school teachers to work for 8 hours daily from Monday to Friday and 5 hours on Saturday. The order cited the provisions of RTE Act that the teachers of primary schools should work for 45 hours a week.
After the meeting of Gujarat state cabinet over the issue, it was decided to cancel the notification.
According to the order, the teachers working in government primary schools would have to work extra two hours other than normal working time. Several unions working for teachers rights were seen protesting against the increase in normal working hours, demanding state government to cancel the notification in favor of teachers. The school teachers usually perform their duties for 5-6 hours daily. Recently the proposal to increase the duty hours by 2 hours daily was approved following which the notification was issued by the education department.
However, after the protests from the Teachers’ Union the controversial order has been withdrawn.
“At the cabinet meeting, the government has decided to cancel the order issued by the Directorate of Primary Education. The teachers are free to work flexibly to complete their work as per their convenience,” said state education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama.
The Opposition Congress party had also demanded the order to be revoked. The state president of the Rashtriya Shikshak Mahasangh, Ghanshyam Patel said, “We had urged the state government to cancel the notification as it was a matter of self-respect for 2 lakh primary school teachers in the state. I am happy over the decision of the government.”
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