Kendriya Vidyalayas contract staffers go sans salary

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was just a few months ago that many of the

Kendriya Vidyalayas

(KVs) from the state made it to the list of top 10 schools of the country, with

KV Pattom

in the top spot, in the Education World India School Ranking. But, all does not seem to be going well with KVs across the state.

Approximately 400 contract staff members of the schools, under Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Kerala region, haven’t received their salary for the past four months. This includes both teaching and non-teaching staff. Acute financial crunch that has gripped the KVs is being cited as the reason for the non-payment.

“Though we could feel the shortage of funds cropping up over the past 2-3 years, we still used to get our salaries with a delay of maximum one month. It is only this time that we are facing a delay of four months at a stretch,” said a contract teacher on condition of anonymity.

On an average, a KV requires around Rs 5 lakh for

disbursement of salaries

to its contract staff per month. Though the salary for the permanent staff is received from the central government, the contract staff members are paid from the Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi (VVN) collected through the fees paid by the students.

“We hiked the monthly fees of students from Rs 240 to Rs 500 to meet the school expense but a few parents challenged the decision in court. Though the high court ruled in KV’s favour, the parents’ association approached the Supreme Court. As the case is pending before the apex court, we are not in a position to collect the fee as per the new fee structure,” said the principal of a KV in Thiruvananthapuram.

The KVS regional office provided loans to the schools to meet their expenses and it has been stopped now.

It is learnt that a few contract teachers from KV Aakulam here have been asked to discontinue their service due to lack of funds. Despite repeated attempts to get in touch with the deputy commissioner of KVS Kerala region, he was unavailable for comments. The

KV contract staffers

, who don’t have a formal association, is planning to unite and raise the issue before the Centre as there is no clarity regarding when the dues would be cleared.

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