Time bound promotion, cashless medical facility: Arvind Kejriwal’s 8 guarantees for teachers in Punjab

Addressing a press conference in Amritsar, Kejriwal said on Tuesday that he had been speaking to teachers for the last one month who pointed out that the condition of government schools in Punjab is extremely bad

Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) national convener Arvind Kejriwal announced eight guarantees for the teachers of Punjab, as it aims to sit in the saddle in poll-bound state next year.

Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) national convener Arvind Kejriwal. (Sameer Sehgal/HT Photo)

Addressing a press conference in Amritsar on Tuesday, Kejriwal, who started his two-day visit to Punjab from Monday, said, “Teachers are a very important and respected part of any society. I put before you eight guarantees for the teachers of Punjab.”

Kejriwal said that the first guarantee will be that all teachers will be given a suitable working environment.

The second guarantee which Kejriwal gave is that all contractual teachers will be regularised.

“The third guarantee is that we will change the transfer policy and it will be transparent.”

The fourth guarantee which Kejriwal gave is that teachers will not perform any non-teaching jobs.

The fifth guarantee of the AAP is that there are a lot of teaching vacancies in Punjab but teachers are still unemployed. “All vacancies will be filled,” Kejriwal told reporters on Tuesday.

All teachers in the state will also be trained from abroad or management institutes like the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kejriwal’s sixth guarantee in Punjab said.

Under the AAP’s seventh guarantee, Kejriwal assured that there will be time-bound promotions for teachers.

The eighth and final guarantee of the AAP is a cashless medical facility for teachers and their family members.

At the start of the press conference, Kejriwal said on Tuesday that he had been speaking to teachers for the last one month who pointed out that the condition of government schools in Punjab is extremely bad. “As many as 2.4 million children are studying in government schools and their future is in danger. The teachers told me that there are many schools where there are no teachers,” he said.

The Delhi chief minister also pointed out that before the AAP's rule, schools in the national capital were also in a bad state. After seven years, remarkable work has been done in government schools of Delhi, Kejriwal said, adding, the model is being discussed not just in India, but the entire world.

“We want to bring reforms in government schools of Punjab as we did in Delhi.”

Kejriwal also targeted the ruling Congress government in Punjab and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states for not doing anything to improve the condition of government schools.