Resentment brews among aided colleges’ teachers as Punjab reduce retirement age to 58

The associations have announced that they are ready to wage war and have constituted a joint action committee (JAC) to chart the next course of action

Teachers and managements of aided colleges of Punjab are on the warpath after the state government proposed fixing their retirement age at 58 years as per its recent notification. The associations have announced that they are ready to wage war and have constituted a joint action committee (JAC) to chart the next course of action.

There are a total of 142 aided colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh. (Representational image)

Prof Vinay Sofat, who is posted at Arya College, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, and heads Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (GNDU colleges), said, “Our service conditions are as per the university calendar and the grant-in-aid scheme under which we are working came into existence in 1978. Thirdly, UGC has asked for extending the retirement age to 65 years. But the Punjab government is the only state government in the country, which is going in the opposite direction”.

“The government is equating us with the teachers of government colleges. How can we be compared with them? Government college teachers’ jobs are pensionable, but ours are not. You are not recruiting new teachers but laying off the old teachers by reducing their retirement age. Isn’t it a policy that could ruin the higher education of Punjab?”, he said, adding, “How can the service conditions under which I joined can be changed randomly? About 500 teachers will go to the court now”.

Notably, there are a total of 142 aided colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh.

Meanwhile, Non-Government Aided Colleges’ Management Federation (NGACMF) has also expressed resentment over the issue. In its executive committee meeting held at Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana, recently, the federation, along with the teachers’ and principals’ association, resolved to fight jointly for the rights of the teachers.

“We will soon shoot off a letter to the secretary of higher education to seek clarification regarding the retirement age of the teachers and their salary grants. As the government is issuing misleading and vague verbal orders on the issue, we are left with no option but to chalk out a major agitation, which might include strikes and closure of institutions of higher learning,” said Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, president of the federation.

The executive members also held extensive deliberations on the notification issued by the Punjab government regarding the pay revision of college teachers as per the 7th pay commission. “Regarding clause 13 (2) of the notification, the government must seriously think of the rules of the central service and raise the retirement age of teachers to 65 years, instead of retiring them at the age of 58, ‘’ said the office bearers.