Primary School Teachers Protest Demanding Fulfillment of Long-Pending Issues
Udupi: The government Primary School teachers held a day-long protest on July 9 to make sure that the government pays heed to their long-pending demands.
Protesters gathered in huge numbers at the DC office and shouted slogans against the state government. The protesters said that most of their demands are still pending, the state government has until now failed to solve their problems.
The school teachers demands include the extension of the graduate-level pay scale for graduate primary school teachers, establishing pre-primary classes in all 46,000 Government Primary Schools across the State, revert to the old pension scheme instead of the National Pension Scheme and to consider recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission.
“Many primary school teachers had started their career before getting a graduate degree. But as per the new rules, designated ‘Graduate Primary Teachers’ who had degrees when they got appointed are allowed to teach from class 5 to 8, which is unfair to those who got degrees through correspondence courses. We have been in the teaching field for many years and as per the new rules we will only be teaching up to class 5. The state government should consider the qualifications of those primary school teachers who were appointed before 2014 for promotions.
The state government must have LKG and UKG classes in government primary schools. The government must also appoint teachers for every subject. The headmasters must be promoted as recommended under the 6th pay commission and the primary school teachers must be considered to be promoted as deputy directors of school education.
The protesters also urged the government to consider service continuity Grameena Kripanka teachers/employees and also continue the old pension scheme instead of implementing the new one.