A massive number of schoolteachers of the State on Saturdaythreatened that they would not cooperate in the ensuing panchayat elections if their 11-point charter of demands, including full grant, go unheard.
The teachers, belonging to School Teachers’ Federation of Odisha (STFO), an umbrella organisation of 17 teachers’ organisations of the State, held a rally at Mahatma Gandhi Marg here protesting non-implementation of the 1994 order of grant-in-aid to schools.
They alleged that since the past 30 years, around 30,000 schoolteachers and 20,000 college lecturers have been suffering due to this visionless education system.
“Every day, teachers are suffering due to the Government’s negligence and dying. The panchayat elections will prove costly for Naveen Patnaik, who seems to pay no heed to the demands of the teachers. The process of grants to school was initiated by Biju Patnaik and, unfortunately, in his birth centenary year we are hitting the street for our genuine demands,” lamented Prakash Chandra Mohanty of the STFO.
Moreover, the Block Grant teachers have been agitating in front of the Assembly for the last three days demanding fulfilment of their nine-point charter of demands that include Government takeover of Grant-in-Aid schools, uniform pay-scale for similar job profiles and provision of all the facilities to Block Grant teachers which are being offered under the mass education and secondary education systems.
Meanwhile on Friday, School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra had assured the Block Grant teachers to look into their demands and urged them to return to work.
The State Government on July 26 announced a 25-per cent hike in the basic salary of Block Grant school teachers as per the Grant-in-Aid provision with retrospective effect from June 1 this year.
The move, however, has been criticised by the teachers’ association, which claims that it was a conspiracy of the Government to avoid takeover of the schools.