Meeting a long-pending demand of the teaching community, the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has approved regularization of the services of 5178 teachers recruited by the Education Department, with full pay scales to be implemented from October 1, 2019.The Cabinet has also regularized 650 nurses of the Health Department as per the department’s probation rules. These contractual nurses had been agitating for some time for regularization at basic pay.Of the 5178 category teachers, 5078 were recruited in the Master cadre and 100 as Classical & Vernacular (C & V) Teachers by the Department in 2014, 2015 and 2016.According to a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office, the Cabinet also decided that the services of those teachers recruited during 2014, 2015 and 2016 would be regularised at full scale on completion of their two-year probation. The cabinet has reduced the probation period from three years to two years. Further, the teachers would be assigned seniority from the date of completion of their probation period. These teachers are currently paid Rs.7500/- per month and their salary would be now fixed at minimum of grade pay i.e. Rs.15,300/- per month till the time they are given full scale.The Cabinet also recorded its appreciation for Education Minister OP Soni and Secretary Krishan Kumar for effectively handling the issue arising out of the teachers’ protests, and resolving the same amicably. It may be recalled that the Chief Minister had directed the School Education Department, while chairing a meeting to review its functioning on February 27, 2019, to bring a comprehensive proposal before the next Cabinet meeting to enable the government to take final decision in this regard.