Education begins at 3 not 6: hC
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The Kerala high court has called for a major hike in the salary of pre-primary teachers and Ayahs, and ruled that education begins at that level.
In an order issued on Thursday, the court held that the education of a child begins at the lower kindergarten level (LKG) at the age of three or four —and not at six as is assumed in the Constitution of India and Right to Education Act, 2005.
The court was considering an appeal relating to the meagre salary of the staff in these institutions.The court directed the state to consider granting a hike of five times the actual salary to pre-primary school teachers and Ayahs. Currently, the teachers are drawing a meagre salary of Rs 900.
The court also directed the state to raise it to Rs 5,000. The Ayahs should be paid Rs 3,500 instead of Rs 600, the court said.
The free and compulsory education in the state does not involve any training or education before the child reaches the age of six. However the state assures that pre-primary school training is part of the child care.
This is quite an unrealistic approach to the problem, because the system of pre-primary school training at two levels -- LKG and Upper Kindergarten (UKG) -- has come into being all over the country, the court has noted.
Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair and Justice Babu Mathew P. Joseph issued the directive after finding that pre-school training is preparation of a child for schooling and hence part of elementary education which has to be necessarily provided by the state at its cost to the poor children who depended on government schools.
The government is obliged to give reasonable wages to the teachers serving with the qualification in pre-primary schools and also to the Ayahs.
Ten years ago, the salary stipulated as per the norms for an unaided pre-primary teacher was Rs 2,500. Considering the inflation rate and other factors, the salary of the teachers should be hiked, the court said
“The total commitment of the government for the 3,000 odd teachers may probably go up to `15 to 16 crores. This won’t be a huge burden for the state, considering the noble objective the government is going to achieve, the court said.
The court was considering an appeal filed by the Kerala pre-primary teachers’ association challenging the single bench order declaring that the state has no responsibility to pay salary to teachers and Ayahs in government schools.
The wages paid by the government for teachers are ridiculously low. It has to be jacked up to reasonable levels, the association pleaded.
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