Arvind Kejriwal to address guest teachers on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: After increasing their salaries significantly, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has now invited guest teachers for a chat. He will address about 11,000 guest teachers at Chhatrasal Stadium, Model Town, on December 21. He will try to “enthuse” them “to perform better towards improving the academic standards of government schools. The education department’s schoolmarmish message to guest teachers, however, is less conciliatory. It tells them not to “loiter”, “cause… commotion” or “indulge in any indiscipline/sloganeering” at the venue.

An affidavit filed by the

Delhi government

in High Court last week shows that there are over 15,400 guest teachers in its school. There’s been little progress on regularizing them – an early promise of the AAP government. The government’s policy of factoring teaching experience of guest teachers while considering their candidature after they’ve written the recruitment exam is stuck for the foreseeable future. The Government School Teachers’ Association’s Ajay Vir Yadav is supremely unimpressed. “They’ve raised the [top] salary to Rs.32,000 and now they want to call the guest teachers to remind them of that and curry favour. If these teachers were permanent ones, they’d be making far more than even what they’re being paid after the hike,” he says.

An internal circular of the Directorate of Education spells out exactly who has to attend. “In school where the strength of guest teachers is less than 30% of the total teaching staff, all such guest teachers will attend,” says the circular. In case of schools where the proportion of guest teachers is between 30% and 50% of the total staff, only half the guest teachers – the most senior ones who’ve been teaching in that school the longest – will attend.

But the department will not allow just anyone in. “Eligible” guest teachers will need to collect and produce at the venue department-issue “unique entry passes.” The list of “Don’ts” in the department’s list of instructions tells teachers not to “loiter around in the stadium”, “cause any commotion by talking/speaking loudly,” “indulge in any indiscipline/sloganeering as indulging in indiscipline will attract strict action as per rules.” They’ve also been told to “use public transport” but, at the same time, bringing handbags or carry bags is forbidden.