PANAJI: By a recent order of the Directorate of Education (DoE), now the director will give the final sanction for a maximum of two years of child-care leave that teachers are eligible to under rule 3 of the Central Civil Services (Leave) 1972.

Before the order, heads of the institutions held the power to give the nod for the long leave.

As per the order dated November 19, 2009, “In exercise of the powers vested under rule 3 of Central Civil Services (leave) rules 1972, the grant of child care leave as recommended in the 6th Central Pay Commission and the necessary instructions issued thereon will be sanctioned by director of education, as per the recommendations of the respective head of offices.”

Deputy director of education and officer on special duty to the education minister, G P Bhat, said, “The order will only be applicable to government high school teachers. In case of government aided schools, the management and head of the schools can sanction the leave. Government does not have surplus teachers and schools struggle when there is no substitute teacher to replace the one who has gone on long leave. The government procedure for their replacement is also long and takes lot of time. Therefore, if the leaves are sanctioned at the department level then we can see the availability of substitute teachers and then sanction the leave.”

As per the rules, amended by the central government last year, the women employees are now entitled for ‘Child care leave’ for a maximum period of two years, that is 730 days, during their entire tenure, to attend to the needs of two children below the age of 18 years during examination or illness.

The leave can be utilised either to rear or to look after any of the children’s needs like examination, sickness etc. This new paid leave can be availed of in more than one spell but limited to a maximum of 730 days.

Sources inform that for this academic year, the DoE has received around 15 applications for such leave from government schools, of which only one has been sanctioned the leave. A source informed that authorities at the directorate found that teachers were making request for the extended paid leave on frivolous grounds and very often liberal sanctioning of these leaves by school heads was affecting functioning of the school.

Sources informed that in most cases, the reason mentioned for applying for the leave only mentioned vaguely `for education
purpose’ (of the teacher’s child). The order has been issued by the directorate to make sure the leave is granted only in genuine cases after ascertaining that there really is a need for such long leave.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com