Around 200 contractual employees working on project-based assignments at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) headquarters in New Delhi have not received their salaries for the past four months, leaving many under severe financial stress and forcing them to borrow money, default on loan repayments and struggle to pay rent, children’s school fees and other household expenses.
The affected employees are engaged under Project Approval Board (PAB)-approved programmes funded by the Union education ministry. Working across different NCERT departments, they are involved in school education initiatives under Samagra Shiksha, including digital education programmes such as DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), PM e-VIDYA (Pradhan Mantri Electronic Vidya), Jaadui Pitara and other NCERT projects.
Employees, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation, told HT that the prolonged salary delay had placed them under immense financial burden.
“I manage my entire family’s expenses. I have a home loan EMI and also send money to my mother every month. Because my salary has not come for over three months, my EMI is bouncing and the penalty keeps increasing. I have borrowed money from friends to survive in Delhi, but my debt is mounting,” a female contractual employee said.
Another employee said the delay had pushed his family into financial distress. “I live in Delhi with my wife and children in a rented house. Since salaries have not been paid for four months, I had to take loans to manage expenses. I am struggling to pay my children’s school fees, house rent and other household expenses,” he said.
Employees said their contracts, which expired on March 31, were subsequently extended first till June and then till September, but salaries for April, May and June remain unpaid. They said they had repeatedly approached project coordinators and department heads at NCERT, who informed them that funds from the Union education ministry had not yet been released and certain approvals were pending.
“The administration keeps telling us that the ministry has not released the funds and they cannot say when salaries will be paid,” one employee said.
Responding to HT’s queries, NCERT director Dinesh Saklani said, “I have asked the concerned departments to look into this immediately.” However, he did not comment on the reasons behind the delay.
The Union education ministry did not respond to HT’s queries seeking clarification on the reasons for the salary delay or the timeline for releasing the pending payments.
The salary delay comes against the backdrop of changes in the funding and approval of NCERT’s project-based activities. While the Union Budget increased NCERT’s overall allocation by nearly 15%, from ₹593.71 crore in 2025-26 to ₹681.79 crore in 2026-27, the outlay approved by the Project Approval Board (PAB) for NCERT’s annual work plan, covering Samagra Shiksha and other centrally funded school education initiatives, declined by nearly 22%, from ₹677.13 crore to ₹529.71 crore during the same period.
The 2026-27 PAB meeting was held on June 12, nearly two months later than the previous financial year’s meeting on April 15. Several contractual employees told HT they believe the delayed approval of the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) disrupted the release of project funds and contributed to the salary hold-up. They also attributed the delay to what they described as cost-cutting measures and pending ministry approvals.
“In previous years, the PAB meeting was usually over by April and salaries were released by May or early June. This year the meeting itself was delayed, and we have been told that funds and approvals are still pending,” one employee said.
The 2026-27 PAB minutes show that the education ministry directed NCERT to optimise human resources, engage external personnel only where necessary and rationalise expenditure across several programmes. The minutes, however, do not explicitly link these decisions to the delay in salary payments.
