The account statement of a school teacher in Dadri, Greater Noida, is like the Bermuda Triangle. Her entire salary disappears in less than 72 hours after it is credited into her account.
The teacher claims that after taking the money from her account, the management of the private school pays her in cash. What she finally receives is Rs 10,000 less than the amount that was wired into her account. An alleged prevalent scam that underpaid teachers have to silently and stoically suffer in many private schools in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, the discrepancy in what is promised and what is actually paid is a story of avarice and exploitative apathy.
She flips through the pages of her bank passbook in frustration. On 14 February 2022, her salary was credited into her account but it was debited three days later on 17 February. Similar transactions were repeated all through the year until she called it quits and resigned from Blue Diamond Public School, Badalpur in Greater Noida. This is not unique to just one school. ‘Cashback salaries’ have permeated into many of Greater Noida’s private schools such as MC Gopichand Inter College and Sainthood Convent School.
“The school kept our signed checkbooks with them, withdrew our salary from our accounts, and paid us in cash later. Or we would withdraw cash from a nearby ATM ourselves and return it to them,” she says. Neither the school’s principal nor the management responded to ThePrint’s emails.
After accessing several bank passbook entries of teachers, ThePrint reached out to current and former teachers of more than five schools in the area, who all had a similar story to tell. On paper, they earn decent salaries but they are forced to return a significant sum to the school in cash.
“This corruption in Greater Noida is rampant, but since it involves the cooperation of teachers and leaves no paper trail it’s difficult to hold anyone accountable,” says Pawan Kumar, president of Bharat Teachers’ Association, a private teacher association in Greater Noida.
District officials say they were unaware of this scam unfolding in private schools in Greater Noida. “I have never received any such complaint till now. But this is criminal. Give me a list of schools, and I’ll look into it,” says District Inspector of Schools, Dharamveer Singh.
Cashback scams thrive under this miasma of silence. And if teachers’ hands are tied, then the heads of such associations are toothless.
“This is the law of the land,” says Kumar.
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Whitewashing money
For schools, it’s a way of ‘whitewashing money’ at the expense of their staff.
ThePrint reached out to the staff at Dujana Public School, MC Gopichand Inter College, Siddhivinayak School and Blue Diamond Public School, and Sainthood Convent School, all in Greater Noida. And every teacher who was willing to speak claimed they were forced to return big chunks of their salary.
Asha Sharma, principal, and director of Sainthood Convent got agitated at the mention of the word ‘salary’. She categorically denied the school’s involvement in any ‘cashback salary scam’. When ThePrint visited the school on 6 December 2022 to seek a response to the allegations, she threatened to lodge a police complaint claiming she was being ‘extorted’. The other schools named did not respond to queries sent via email.
“If teachers have so much problem with their salaries, why do they accept jobs with us?” says a member of the Dadri School Owners association, who does not want to be named.
Vandana Gupta, a former teacher from another private school in Greater Noida, is not surprised by the defensive attitude or the dogged silence. She claims her last received salary was Rs 8,000, though her bank statements show that Rs 25,000 was credited every month from the school. In frustration, Gupta quit her job. She is now looking for job opportunities in Ghaziabad.
“The salaries in Ghaziabad schools are better, and so are the working hours. I don’t want to work in Greater Noida anymore,” she told ThePrint.
ThePrint also accessed the passbooks of teachers from two schools—Blue Diamond Public School and MC Gopichand Inter College—to verify these allegations.
Singh, a former teacher at MC Gopichand earned Rs 45,000 a month—on paper. His HDFC Bank statements, however, show that immediately after the money was credited into his account, Rs 25,000 was withdrawn over three transactions.
“I withdrew the money and returned it to the school’s cashier,” he says. Singh, who taught social studies at MC Gopichand Inter College alleges that he was fired without notice or cause. A similar claim was made by Hamid Khan, who used to teach economics and business studies at MC Gopichand, but was allegedly let go in September 2022.
The size of the school doesn’t matter. Some like Sainthood Convent are unassuming modest buildings tucked away in the gullies of Dadri. Others like MC Gopichand have large campuses complete with playgrounds and parking bays for buses.
Dharmendra Yadav, president of the Technical University Teachers Association, and a Samajwadi Party spokesperson insists that the scam is not limited to schools in Greater Noida.
“This is the general practice in schools to pay teachers less salary and get away with it. It’s happening in private universities as well in Greater Noida and the rest of the country,” he tells ThePrint.
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Problems faced by teachers
By the time Hamid Khan, who teaches business studies and economics, was allegedly forced to quit MC Gopichand Inter College in September 2022, he had taken loans amounting to Rs 4 lakh.
He worked at the school for seven years. Neither the management nor the principal responded to ThePrint’s emails.
“I regret the day I became a teacher,” says Khan, who has an MBA, a Bachelor of Commerce, and a Bachelor of Education degree. But these milestones mean little in the competitive education industry.
He wrote to Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas LY in October 2022, complaining that his former employer didn’t clear his previous dues of two months. But his complaint makes no mention of him being forced to return Rs. 10,000 of his salary to the school.
Himalaya Sharma, a young 21-year-old teacher, says he has tried mobilising teachers against this malpractice in the past, but fear of not getting jobs anywhere holds them back.
“The teachers are scared that they won’t get jobs at other schools, or even lose the ones that they have. So, the school management functions with impunity. Teachers have nowhere to go,” says Sharma.
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Minimum wages
Teachers claim that this unwillingness to speak up has permeated all facets of their job including the salaries they are hired at.
“Nobody is willing to come forward and protest because there are no associations and no cohesion among teachers. There is a general sense of fear over losing our jobs,” teacher Vandana Gupta says.
Singh’s house in a Greater Noida village is in dire need of repairs. The crust of the parrot green painted walls has completely torn off, the floor is unlaid and incomplete.
All of 2020 and part of 2021, when schools were shut due to the pandemic, he earned only half of his salary– Rs 10,000—teaching social studies at MC Gopichand Inter College. “The school purchased two new buses and built new infrastructure while denying teachers their salary,” he says bitterly.
A school principal, of a primary school in Badalpur, who does not want to be named, admitted that teachers are being hired at less than minimum wage.
“I have hired two teachers in the pre-primary sections at a remuneration of Rs 3,000 per month,” she says. “I pay the cleaning staff more.”
While he claims to be unaware of the alleged cashback salary scam, Deputy Inspector of Schools Dharmendra Yadav is aware of the low pay.
“Schools are required to pay in line with the 7th Pay Commission, but in the Dadri area, low-income schools, which charge students Rs 2-4k fees a month lack resources. Private schools don’t have the kind of money to be complying with the norms,” he says.
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A teacher’s life
Most of the teachers in primary and secondary sections are women. After all, in India teaching is a profession that is seen as ‘safe’ and promises a healthy work-life balance. But the reality is not so rosy.
They have to put in long hours at work doing non-teaching tasks and fight for maternity leave. HR practices are non-existent. Three teachers claim they were asked to resign when they informed their respective school managements that they were pregnant. Others say they were compelled to take leave without pay.
“School administration doesn’t exploit the male staff as much as they harangue female teachers. It has become the culture of this country to insult gurus,” says one teacher, Miss Sharma
A sought-after Maths teacher with 20 years of experience, Gupta ma’am—as she is called by her students— has to visit parents at home to remind them to pay the school fees. It’s unofficially a part of her job description.
To make ends meet, she conducts private tuition at home. So, every day, she wakes up at 4:30 AM. Her morning cup of tea is a luxury, and then the doorbell rings, marking the start of another hectic day. Yawning students with pen, paper, and Maths problems file into her house for a class before the school day begins.
According to CBSE by-laws,and there should be 1.5 teachers per class of 30 students. Section 27 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act also prohibits the deployment of teachers for non-teaching purposes. But that’s not always the case.
“I left Sainthood School only because I was made to visit the houses of my students in the middle of the pandemic to procure school fees. CBSE clearly states it’s not the job of the teacher, yet we were pulled out of schools in the middle of a pandemic to do this work,” Sanket Bhati, a teacher says.
Teachers also reported not getting recommendations, relieving letters, and even appointment letters at the time of their joining. “Most schools make teachers sign empty letters,” says Pramod Kumar, a computer teacher who is also a member of the Bharat Teachers Association.
If parents believe that the education system is broken resulting in the rise of tuition culture, then teachers say that it has failed them.
“I have four MA degrees. People laugh at me for being a teacher— they say my education has gone to waste,” says Madan, who teaches English.