Teachers' 6th Pay Revision : Issues & Opinions

University Grant Commission constitueted the VI Pay Review Committee to recommend improved pay structure and other allowances and facilities for teachers in colleges and universities of India. Purpose of this whole exercise was to rope in the talent to teaching field and retain them in future in the same profession. The committee submitted its report on October 3, 2008. India is realizing the fact that investment in education sector today will pay tommorrow. However, top brasses in Indian heirarchy always fail to understand it and do something that makes mockery of all the visions and future plans.

As per the media reports, the Committee recommended an increase of more than 70 per cent in pay and allowances for the teachers. However, this increase was not uniform across the board. For certain posts, the proposed hike was more than 90 per cent and for some less than 30%. The UGC panel, headed by Prof G K Chadha, submitted report to the UGC chairman Prof Sukhadeo Thorat. According to the report, a faculty member will join as an assistant professor, not as a lecturer as earlier. The teacher at the entry level will be entitled for a grade pay of Rs 6,600 and will draw a salary between Rs15,600 and Rs 39,100 (See the report highlights). A lecturer's pay scale at present is between Rs 8,000 to Rs13,500. For assistant professor, assistant professor (senior scale) and assistant professor (senior grade), the pay scale will be between Rs15,600 and Rs 39,100 while the grade pay will vary. A teacher will be entitled for annual increment of three per cent of the basic salary with compounding effect. Teachers with good performance record can get four per cent annual increment. The committee has recommended a new band pay between Rs 37,400 and Rs 67,000 for professors against the existing scale of Rs16,400 and Rs 22,400.

Newly recruited Assist. professors entering to education field were given good deal and the senior faculty serving as Professors  got more than the expected in the report. On the other hand, the teachers in existing pay package of 10000-15600 (Assist. Professors, SS) and 12000-420-18,300 (Associate Professors/Readers) were proposed to be designated as Assist. Professor (SS) and Assist. Professor (SG) with same pay package (different grade pay) as the new entrants. Assist. Professor (SS) were placed in same scale after serving 4-6 years as Assist. Professor and will accumulate 4-6 increaments. Besides this they will have a gain of Rs 600 in grade pay wheareas a new recruit with five increaments will get almost same or more pay than Assist. Professor (SS). Erstwhile Associate Professors/Readers were proposed to be fixed in the pay band 15600-39,100 pay band whereas the UG College Principals of the same scale were proposed to be fixed in the pay band of 37,400-67000. UGC Pay Panel  favored the Professors by increasing their grade pay that should could been fixed to 10,000 as per corresponding pay band in 6 CPC scheme but  upgraded to 11,000. Special favor was shown to professor by placing them in PB 4 with a higher GP than given by 6CPC. Existing scales of readers and professors do not have corresponding old scales in 6CPC and is a merger of two scales. While implementing the 6CPC report the Govt. has upgraded the existing pay scales ending with 18, 300 to Pay Band - 4, though 6th Pay Commission has proposed it to stay in Pay band -3. Why has the UGC pay panel has proposed teachers drawing pay in the existing pay scale of Rs 12000-18300 to be fixed in the pay band -3. Although UG Principals placed in the existing pay scale of Rs 12000-420-18300 has been proposed to be fixed in Pay Band-4 (Rs 37000-67000), why not the teachers of the same scale have been proposed to be fixed in Pay Band-4?

This showed that PRC failed to do justice with readers /associate professors. .Perhaps none of the PRC member was aware that most of the teachers promoted to Assoc. Professor/reader promoted to the scale of 12000-18300 in the year 1998, will be stagnating in the revised pay structuture. the revised basic Pay of 90% of Assoc. Professors would be nearing end of the proposed pay band i.e Rs 39100 on July 2008. Hence most of the teachers will reach end of the scale before it get implemented.

As soon as the report was made public, protests were made by different teachers associations and memorandum were submitted to UGC. Grievances of suffering teaching communities were highlighted by this blog. Thousands of teachers made their protests against the injustice. Efforts were made to find out the solutions and several suggestions were put for voting here. These suggestions and opinions of teachers were forwarded to UGC and MHRD.

The UGC furnished its recommendations on 10th October, 2008. An Empowered Committee was constituted on 10th October, 2008 and based on its recommendations, the proposals formulated by the Ministry were considered by a Committee of Secretaries in its meeting held on 5th December, 2008. Cabinet approved the pay proposals on 15th December, 2008.

As per the information gathered from different sources, UGC recommended PB IV to readers/associate professors while submitting it to MHRD. The Empowered Committee made certain modifications in the report. 

As per a report published in the "Telegraph", the HRD ministry also has shown its concerns over the recommendations. Some officials said the finance ministry could object to the over 200 per cent hike in the salaries of vice-chancellors.“The primary objective of the pay review is to attract young, talented teachers to the profession. They need to be paid well. High salaries for VCs aren’t required. Those interested would queue up anyway,” an official said.

PIB release of MOS, MHRD in Lok Sabha revealed that readers/associate professors would be eligible for PB IV after putting 3 years of service in AGP of Rs 8000. However, its a matter of suspense whether they will be automatically placed in PB IV or ahve to be assessed for their suitability. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Quotes:

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Teachers' Association President, Kamal Mitra Chenoy said, "Chadha's report would go down in history as the worst report for teachers. They have not improved the pay scales and instead created a new hierarchy, Chenoy added.

Tabrez Alam Khan, president, JMITA said: "There is not a single point which would attract new talents into this profession. The report has done great injustice to higher education.''

Avanijesh Awasthi, president, NDTF, said: "The demand for professorship to teachers of DU college has been there for a long time. The report has not taken into consideration any of the demands teacher's made through rough various agitations.''

============================================================ 

Highlights of UGC pay scales are available in the hub "Revised UGC pay scales for librarian & Physical education officers as per notification".

Dr B J Kopper's letter is available as a hub UGC teachers pay notification: Anomalies and their remedies

Note: Pay fixation rules for newly recruited Principal Scientists have been partially modified by ICAR. Details of modifications and link to updated file is available in the following hub:

ICAR revised pay scales for Scientists and reference tables

Summarized recommendations of Govardhan Mehta Committee report for Faculty, Scientific/Design staff of Central Technical Institutes:

^{Fitment tables are available at education.nic.in. If you are unable to open the file, click this link to download Fitmant tables for teachers, registrars, librarians etc}

• "Teachers' directory of Indian Universities" is the online database of teacher's working in different colleges, institutes and universities.
• I wish to inform all that now onward, I'll be updating Teachers Directory twice a week due to sudden rush of details. Hence, all the new members have to keep patience for their name to appear in the directory.
• Features & Resources:New Comment box is as simple and good looking; daily horoscopes are available; quotes by Buddha & Benjamin; A new idiom daily to enrich your English, Live chat; Hindi movie video clips to watch; Links to all teachers' related resources
• Important: Some inquiries have come to me about the specific achievements and specific area of work of members of directory. Hence, existing and new members may submit name of International journals alongwith no. of publications in a particular journal (a reputed international and not Indian Journals), any awards to their students or no. of thesis (MS/Ph.D) etc. This information may be useful for foreign assignments, foreign students looking for higher education in India etc.

• Teachers/research officers may found this article useful: How to show CD/LSD in a graph
  

Poll Analysis: In teaching communities view the responsibilities lies with UGC for all the delay in release of fitment tables and implementation of revised scales. Sixty percent teachers believe that it is due to inactiveness of UGC. The most surprising fact shown by this poll is that only 20% believe that MHRD is responsible for the delay. When educated people are so undecided what do we say to illiterate people. However, comments posted shows that all the hindrances are being created by committees formed by MHRD to settle the things.