Delhi School Teachers Still Waiting: 60,000 Unpaid After AAP Tablet Scheme

New Delhi: Delhi's government teachers have the problem of the size of a tablet in bringing classrooms to life. This problem is reimbursement.

When Manisha, a mathematics teacher at a Delhi government school, log in to the Directorate of Education (DoE) portal everyday to feed in attendance and student data, she does it on a tablet that she purchased with her earnings. This device cost her 15,000 three years ago – more than half her salary – and she still has not received reimbursement for it.

Manisha is not the only one. Over 60,000 school teachers are currently unable to receive reimbursements for the digital devices that they are made to buy, and often, from their pockets.

"I purchased the tablet because the principal said we would be inspected, and as a guest teacher, I did not want to risk my job," she said. "Since I earn just 1,403 per day, in many months my earnings barely exceed 25,000, this tablet is a huge expense for me."

Manisha teaches mathematics to students of classes 6 to 10 at a Government Boys Senior Secondary School in central Delhi. A majority of her administrative duties – attendance, mark entry, scholarship records, uniform distribution, mid-day meal records – are performed using online portals where teachers are expected to log in themselves.

She has to spend around 400 on mobile data each month for her duties. She mentioned that school salaries had not been hiked for the past eight years while the price of her autorickshaw rides to work had doubled.

Manisha is one of the 60,000 government school teachers in Delhi, including regular and guest employees, who claim that the education department asked them to purchase tablets for 15,000 as part of its digitalization push. The first circular on this was issued in 2018, followed by an clarification on January 17, 2023: "All referred teachers are directed to buy the tablet and submit the bill by 31.01.2024, failing which no reimbursement will be made and action as deemed fit will be initiated against defaulting teachers."

The bulk of her administrative work-attendance, marks entry, scholarship records, uniform distribution data and mid-day meal records-is now done on online portals and each teacher must have an individual login for this. | Vitasta Kaul, ThePrint

Teachers claim the AAP government had promised to reimburse up to Rs 15,000 for the devices and provide a monthly sum of Rs 200 for internet expenses. Many teachers said they had not received any reimbursement for their tablets, and the internet sum was given once or twice, after which it was stopped. Since then, Delhi's teachers' association have been shuttling between various offices to file applications and petitions, all in vain.

"We have been writing to the education department, meeting governments (successive ones) time and again but have got very little response," said Ajay Veer Yadav, general secretary of the Government School Teachers Association of Delhi. He alleged that the association could never get a meeting with either former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal or the education minister, despite requests. Yadav said after the new government came into power, he met Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and asked for reimbursement to be added in the budget. "She said there would be provisions made, and asked the education minister to look into the matter, but there has been no action yet." She met him a few weeks ago again to the same end.