DECEMBER 23: Teachers of nineteen schools for the hearing impaired in the city will hold classes for their students at the Azad Maidan beginning January 1 to protest non-payment of salaries for three months and press their other demands.All schools for the differently abled come under the Social Welfare Department of the state government, which doles out salaries for their teachers as part of its unplanned expenditure. The teachers have therefore also demanded that the schools be brought under the education department to avoid delays in payment of salaries.President of the All India Association of Teachers of the Deaf, Usha Gogte, said: ``In the last ten years I have seldom seen salaries being paid on time. This year itself, our salaries for February and March were given a month late, that too in instalments. In September we were paid half our salary, and since October we have got neither our salaries nor bonus. As the non-teaching staff have also been suffering a similar fate, we have decided to include them in our association.''Gogte said classes would be held at the Azad Maidan because they were fed up of making representations to the Social Welfare Department. ``Unlike the department, we cannot disregard students' needs. So we will continue to teach them, only the place will change,'' she added.Unlike teachers in other schools, those in schools for the differently abled have to obtain a special Bachelor of Education degree. However, they have still been denied the Fifth Pay Commission payscales. ``Already there are disparities in the payscales (between Rs 500 to Rs 800). Worse, we haven't been paid as per the Fifth Pay Commission scales though they have been made applicable since last year. The department's apathy is evident from the fact that there is only one clerk to look into the affairs of such schools. As for monitoring schools, all they want to know is the student strength,'' Gogte said.Suresh Kaginkar, a senior non-teaching staff with Rochiram T Thadani School for the Hearing Handicapped, Chembur, said: ``Both I and my wife work in this school. Between the two of us, we earn Rs 10,000-odd only. This means in the last three months we have to had to frequently skip our meals as we have two kids to look after.'' Unlike the teaching staff, there is no selection grade for non-teaching staff, said another non-teaching staff Gopal Joshi. The non-teaching staff will stage a silent rally in protest next week.The teachers have said the affairs of such schools must be brought under the education department since, in any case, they have to follow government resolutions issued by the education department. Else, they say, such schools must be brought under a specific head which will be solely responsible for their affairs.
