Meritorious School Teachers Await Regularisation Despite Students' Success in JEE Mains

• Apr 29, 2025

Punjab Education Minister Harjot Bains recently lauded the achievement of 261 government school students who qualified the prestigious JEE Mains examination this year, calling it a "testament" to the quality of education in the state's government institutions. To further support these students, Bains announced the launch of a free JEE Advanced coaching summer camp in SAS Nagar.

Notably, 231 of these successful candidates hail from Punjab’s nine Meritorious Schools, established in 2014 to provide free, high-quality residential education to economically weaker students. Admission to these schools requires a score above 80% through a centralized process, and the schools have emerged as academic hubs, producing students who consistently qualify for competitive exams like NEET and JEE.

However, behind this success story lies a decade-old struggle. The teachers — many holding double master’s degrees and qualified through the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) — have been fighting for regularisation of their services. Promised permanent status back in 2015, they continue to work on contractual terms, often protesting, burning effigies, and staging sit-ins while simultaneously preparing students for top exams.

“We were promised regularisation, but each government has only given us false assurances,” said Roop Lal, a commerce teacher at Meritorious School, Amritsar, whose students are among those qualifying for JEE this year. “Even after a 10-year wait, all we hear is that the ‘process’ is still underway. How long will it continue?”

The Amritsar Meritorious School, which once had 42 teachers, has seen many leave or get deputed elsewhere, even as new admissions are set to rise. For the 2024 session alone, more than 500 students secured seats, with the cutoff climbing to 95%.

Despite being projected as "elite" institutions with smart classrooms, science labs, tech-based learning, and sports facilities, the teachers' demands remain unmet. The government continues to highlight the schools' achievements while sidelining the backbone — the educators.

The Meritorious Teachers’ Union of Punjab protested earlier this year after a Cabinet sub-committee meeting that was expected to address the regularisation issue got postponed indefinitely. Sukhjeet Singh, district unit head of the union and a teacher at Meritorious School, Amritsar, said, “Teachers who have mentored hundreds of NEET and JEE qualifiers are still slogging away on meagre salaries and insecure contracts. The government’s treatment has severely undermined our contribution.”

Another rising concern is the government's push for the new Schools of Eminence (SoEs) project. Teachers allege that while Meritorious Schools already possess the necessary infrastructure for quality education, they are being sidelined in favor of the new SoEs, leaving the future of these well-established institutions and their educators uncertain.