Date:05/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/05/stories/2009010551360300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Apprentice teachers likely to get notional increments

Staff Reporter

Some 1,72,000 teachers to be benefited by the move

Government may issue order today
STF leaders thank Chief Minister

Kakinada: The State government is expected to issue a GO on January 5 sanctioning notional increments for apprentice teachers and allowing periods of apprenticeship to be counted for the purpose of promotions and computation of retirement benefits. This policy decision will entail a burden of Rs. 142 crores on exchequer, of which Rs. 32 crores has already been released, according to MLC (Godavari districts’ teachers constituency) N. Sesha Reddy.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Mr. Sesha Reddy said the new GO paves the way for scrapping the apprenticeship system itself which was introduced by the TDP in 1995.

However, it cannot be done away with immediately due to certain procedural and legal constraints.

For the time being, the notional increments would be added to General Provident Fund (GPF) account and remitted in cash with effect from April 1, 2009.

A total of 1,72,000 teachers recruited (through DSC examinations) between 1996 and 2006 would benefit by the amendment.

Apprentice teachers used to be paid paltry salaries but it would become a thing of the past once the existing system is changed. The periods of apprenticeship would now be added to the total number of years of service, which was not the practice earlier.

Apprenticeship system

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy assured the School Teachers’ Federation (STF) and the Joint Action Committee of Teachers’ Oranisations (JACTO) to annul apprenticeship system wherein teachers were made to work on par with regular teachers for meagre salaries. The period of apprenticeship was at one point of time increased from two to four years during the TDP regime but was subsequently restored to two years due to Statewide agitations.

Mr. Sesha Reddy said the government temporarily increased the stipend of secondary grade teachers for the first and second years from Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 3,600 and Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 4,500 respectively as interim relief (IR).

Similarly, the school assistants got their stipends hiked from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 4,400 and Rs. 1,800 to Rs. 5,400 as IR.

STF leaders – K. Jayaraju, T. Sairamakrishna, K. Satyanarayana and N.A. Sriramachandra Murthy -- thanked the Chief Minister for his ‘New Year gift’ to teachers.