The GR issued by the Department of School Education on May 13, 1999 following the recommendations by the Fifth Pay Commission contains the amended pay scales for the special teachers (arts, music, sports teachers etc) in secondary schools and some of the primary teachers whose salaries have been reduced.

It, however, has ignored the anomalies in pay scales of principals and heads of higher secondary schools in spite of representations by the Mumbai Association of Heads of Secondary Schools which has nearly 500 principals of higher secondary schools as members. A headmasters' delegation had met secretary of school education Rameshchandra Kanade early this year. The principals are contemplating to move court in this regard.

Principal Ramakant Pandey of Bansidhar Aggarwal HighSchool and Junior College at Wadala, explained, ``As per GR under reference the basic salary of Rs 1500 of headmaster for Std V-X is more than what the headmaster of Std V- XII (higher secondery) gets. This will mean as and when the higher secondary classes are added to secondary schools, the pay scale of headmaster will be brought down from Rs 8000-Rs 13,500 to Rs 7,500-Rs 12,000, thereby losing nearly Rs 3000 per month''. If the government fails to take adequate steps headmasters will refuse to take up the additional burden of higher secondary classes, a senior headmaster claimed. He pointed out that while page 17 (section 9) of the GR clearly states `there will be only one category of headmasters in the secondary schools', page 21 contradicts this by proposing two categories based on the strength of students in the school.