Karnataka government finally releases funds for primary school guest teachers

The State government late on Monday announced that ₹249.41 crore had been released to pay primary school guest teachers, while the remuneration for high school guest teachers remains pending.

This comes as a relief to thousands of guest teachers in government schools who had not received their remuneration for four months.

To meet the shortage of teachers in government schools, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) appointed 45,000 guest teachers, 35,000 for primary schools and 10,000 for high schools, for 2024-25. The department pays ₹10,000 per month to primary school guest teachers and ₹10,500 to high school guest teachers.

However, many expressed regret about the delay in remuneration even after half of the academic year has been completed.

“I am teaching English in a government higher primary school which is about 30 km away from the taluk headquarters. The village where I am working does not even have proper bus facilities. I go on my two-wheeler. However, since the government has not released remuneration for the last four months, there is no money even for petrol. Many times, I received a loan from the school headmaster,” said a guest teacher from Ramanagara district.

“I am an MSc BEd graduate and teaching Science and Maths in a government high school. As a single parent, the remuneration given by the government is the basis for my livelihood. It is difficult to meet expenses such as my children’s school fees and others. The government should pay remuneration to the guest teachers every month,” insisted a female guest teacher from Tumakuru district.

“Since the day of recruitment, we have been attending school without fail. When the posts fell vacant owing to transfer of teachers, we handled that workload ourselves. Following the government order, we are also teaching SSLC students who failed last year and have been re-admitted,” a guest teacher from Bengaluru said.

“Usually, remuneration is released to guest teachers once in three months every year. So, the remuneration should have been released in early September. However, there was a slight delay owing to technical difficulties,” said an official of DSEL.