Bhubaneswar: Over 1 lakh primary teachers of Class I to VIII staged a massive rally at Lower PMG in Odisha capital on Sunday over their three-point charter of demands.
The demonstration was staged under the banner of the NPS Secondary Teachers’ Association.
DEMANDS
>> Treat the six-year duration of employment as a teaching assistant as a regular appointment and regularise them along with six increments by abolishing contractual appointments
>> Salary equal to the central scale
>> Implementation of old pension policy
These teachers, who have been employed at Rs 1,500 a month since recruitment of teaching assistants started in 2001, alleged that they are being paid less than high school teachers despite having similar qualifications. While appointments of high school teachers are being regularised from the date of their original appointment, the six-year period as a teaching assistant is not being counted in their case.
They threatened to disrupt the Matriculation Summative-1 test scheduled on November 23, if the government doesn’t come up with any concrete steps regarding the regularisation of jobs of those appointed between 2004 and 2013-14.
