West Bengal primary teachers demand pending grants for last two years; seek hike in composite grant

In a letter issued by the Bengal Primary Teachers' Association (BPTA), the teachers' group has highlighted that the composite grants for the financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26 are still pending and has requested the government to release them.

The WB primary teachers group has urged the state's school education department to release the pending grants for financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26, as well as for 2026-27, to support school management.

Due to the delay in the release of teachers' grants, the schools are unable to meet essential expenses such as purchasing educational materials, cleaning supplies, electricity bills, internet charges, and other day-to-day operational costs. Read More | ‘Fix schools, create jobs’: West Bengal voters cut through election noise with education, employment demands

Furthermore, teachers are burdened with the responsibility of financing school operations from their own pockets and personal expenses. Consequently, carrying out the routine functioning of schools has become a major challenge, the teachers’ group added.

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What does WB teachers’ group demand?

The primary school teachers’ group has demanded:

• Release the pending composite grants for the last two financial years immediately.
• Ensure that the composite grant is released regularly and on time every year.
• Increase the amount allocated for the composite grant

“The issue of the composite grant is extremely important at a time when primary schools across the state are facing multiple challenges,” the official BPTA press release reads in Bengali.

West Bengal Education Budget 2026

This year’s West Bengal Budget 2026-27 for education includes recruitment of teachers to fill 50,000 teacher posts, as a part of the broader plan to recruit 1 lakh people in government jobs. Notably, scholarships worth Rs 50,000 have been announced for unmarried girls joining government and government-aided colleges.

For the financial year 2026-27, the school education department received the largest allocation of Rs 41,234.69 crore, followed by the higher education department with Rs 6,858.89 crore, and the technical education, training and skill development department with Rs 1,464.19 crore.