Deprived of her dues

"After a BA in English and French from St Xavier’s College, and a diploma in French from Alliance Francaise, I was instantly given a job as a French teacher at St Joseph’s High School, Colaba, in 1980,” Nancy Contractor recalled to The Times of India (TOI) on January 13, 2010. After teaching there for over two decades she was unsettled when informed that she was "unqualified” and not entitled to any pension because she did not hold a BEd degree. So, two years before retirement she was expected to obtain the degree to become "professionally trained” or else forego her dues.

That sent the teacher, who had been setting, moderating and correcting SSC (secondary school certificate) board French papers across Maharashtra for 15 years, shuttling between the school principal and the education department to find out what was going on. "There is no BEd in French. So even if I had done my BEd in Marathi, I would have been considered a qualified French teacher,” Contractor told TOI. "I got enrolled in a BEd course, about two years before retirement. But I was told by the school principal that there was no need to do so. Instead the principal, along with officials from the education department, made me sign a letter saying that, if I wanted to continue teaching, I would have to forego my right to any pension. I was also told not to speak of the matter to the Press. I signed the letter so that I could continue teaching till I retired, because I loved my job. Had I not signed the letter, I was going to be instantly dismissed.”

Ten years after Contractor gave up her fight for pension, TOI spoke to the office of the deputy director of education and was told that the case could be "studied afresh.” The department admitted that many teachers who did not have a BEd degree had suffered a similar fate. "It is the responsibility of the school to inform their teachers about the rules and regulations of the education department,” Basanti Roy, who was education inspector for South Bombay at the time of the Contractor incident, told TOI. However, the school’s principal C. D’Souza is supportive of Contractor, maintaining that "After spending their entire lives serving society, teachers should never be deprived of what’s due to them.” Educationists too are "aghast,” TOI notes. "How can a teacher for 22 years not be given any pension?” asks Arundhati Chavan, president of the PTA United Forum, and principal of a teacher training college.