Ahmedabad: A high-level meeting was held under the chairmanship of Gujarat’s education minister Pradyuman Vaja to discuss the long-pending demands and issues concerning grant-in-aid schools, teachers and non-teaching staff across the state. Senior education department officials and representatives of various education organisations attended the meeting.
During the meeting, education organisations presented several demands related to improving the infrastructure and academic conditions of grant-in-aid schools. They sought to double maintenance grants for schools and increase fees for schools operating under the fee-option system.
The organisations also demanded that teacher recruitment be completed to 100% at the start of the new academic session. They sought immediate recruitment of non-teaching staff and the launch of the third round of recruitment for education assistants.
Another major demand was the immediate revival of librarian recruitment, which has reportedly remained closed for nearly 20 years. The organisations said fresh recruitment would help strengthen the state’s ’Vanche Gujarat’ reading campaign.
For sports education, they proposed allocating one physical education teacher for every three schools and appointing an independent physical education teacher wherever the workload warrants it, to strengthen the Khel Mahakumbh initiative.
The organisations also sought an increase in the monthly remuneration of teachers working under Gyan Sahay Yojana.
Several issues concerning school approval and fee regulation were also discussed. Representatives demanded removal of the minimum student-attendance condition of 24 students for rural schools and 36 students for urban schools, arguing that the condition could put the existence of grant-in-aid schools at risk.
They also sought annual revision of FRC fee slabs at a rate of 7%, noting that the slabs have not been revised for nine years. They further requested that the only science-stream school at the taluka level should not be shut down solely because of low student enrolment.
The education minister and senior officials reportedly responded positively to the demands and assured representatives that they would work to resolve the issues as soon as possible.
