The Jharkhand government has decided to increase the honorarium of the 65,000-odd para teachers and provide additional facilities to these ad-hoc teachers on the lines of neighbouring Bihar, officials from the school education and literacy department said on Wednesday, but this would apply to only those who clear Teachers' Eligibility Tests (TET).

An official announcement regarding this move will be made by the state government on December 29, the second anniversary of the Hemant-led coialtion, the sources said adding that like in Bihar, para teachers in Jharkhand would also retire at the age of 60.

The decision regarding upgrading payments to, and facilities of, para teachers was taken at a meeting of para teachers’ representatives with Jharkhand’s School Education and Literacy Minister Jagarnath Mahto, sources said. But, in order to reap the benefits of government’s updated pay scale and perks, para teachers would have to clear TET. Only those who clear this test will be retained, sources said.

With the implementation of the new policy, women para teachers will be able to avail maternity leave, while all the ad-hoc teachers will be eligible for paid leave, casual leave and other leaves usually offered to regular government employees. Most para teachers in Jharkhand get a monthly honorarium of about Rs 10,000 at present. There monthly pay, once the new policy is implemented, may double.

Mahto, who has been under treatment for several months after contracting Covid-19 and undergoing a lung transplant, was not available for comment on Wednesday. A close aide of the minister, however, confirmed that a policy has been framed to improve the paygrade of para teachers.

The para teachers, appointed under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme of the Centre back in 2002, impart education to students in rural and semi-urban areas of the state. Some of the schools, hardly a few kilometres from the state capital’s periphery, are run by para teachers alone.

Jharkhand para teachers have been up in arms against the government, demanding regularisation of services. Almost every year, the teachers have staged protests and gone on strikes, crippling the primary education system in rural Jharkhand in the past decade or so.

In 2018, para teachers Suryadev Thakur and Ujjwal Rai reportedly died after being lathi-charged at a Chief Minister’s event on November 15, Jharkhand’s Statehood Day. Another para teacher, Kanchan Das, allegedly died of cold while protesting outside former minister Louis Marandi’s residence in Dumka in course of the strike.

The teachers have also complained of irregular payment of honorarium, which the government blamed on a lack of funds sanctioned under the SSA. Chief Minister Hemant Soren, before coming to power, had extended his support to the teachers and assured to address all their problems if he is voted to power.