An error committed by the Sanjay Centre for Special Education (SCSE) in 2007 has come to haunt 18 teachers who have not only had their salaries cut by Rs 10,000 per month, but might have to pay back Rs 5 lakh. When bringing them under the VI pay commission they were granted a higher pay scale even though they were not trained and to their misfortune, in 2014 this anomaly was picked up during an internal audit. Accordingly, the SCSE was ordered to reduce their scale because they were not trained and recover excess salary paid to them over the years. This came as a shock to the teachers who not only have to put up with a reduction in pay but also bear the burden of paying back a huge sum to the government. Special children require teachers with a different skill set and hence, one can understand the insistence of the audit report on recruitment of trained teachers. The SCSE had committed a serious error in recruiting untrained teachers and one wonders how this situation was allowed to persist for seven years. However, now that the error has come to light the teachers must get themselves trained so that they can avail of a higher scale. As far as recovery of excess pay is concerned, the government could consider making a concession so the burden is either spread evenly over the remaining years of service or condone it since the error was committed by the SCSE and not the teachers.
