Physical education instructors in schools in the state have been at the receiving end of alleged discrimination from successive governments, be it the LDF or the UDF, over the past several years. The joint association of physical instructors says that instructors right up to Class XII have often failed to benefit from salary revision.
The association, pointing out that physical education instructors have a take-home salary equivalent to that of primary school teachers, has flayed the state government for having sidelined them in the Eleventh Pay Revision Commission report submitted last week. Though several representations were given to the government, nothing positive has come out of them, the association claims. Hence, instructors are set to stage statewide sit-in protests in front of district education offices on February 6. They are also planning to boycott classes in the next academic year if the government fails to meet their demands. We had started agitations in 2017 raising various demands like salary revision, including physical education in the school curriculum, periodic revision of appointment guidelines, equalising the salary of high school teachers and instructors. We also wanted the government to consider us general teachers, said Jositmon John, president, Kerala Private School Physical Education Teachers' Association.
He said, despite an assurance that they would be included in the Eleventh Pay Revision Commission report, it did not consider them. That's why we have decided to start a statewide agitation to raise our demands and to avoid discrimination towards us, Jositmon said. Instructors of government schools too have decided to join the protest. The Departmental Physical Education Teachers' Association has passed a resolution, said M Sunil Kumar, president of the association. Their representatives are set to meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other ministers seeking help to redress their grievances. Meanwhile, general education department director K Jeevan Babu told TNIE that the decision to clear anomalies in the pay commission report has to come from the state government. Any issue with the commission's report has to be decided at the government level. The government is yet to consider it. We are aware about the issues raised by the instructors and the government will consider them, he said.
