Para teachers protesting since September 17 in capital city are not ready to give up as the State government has yet not accepted their demand of job regularisation. Though after the final ultimatum set by the State Government, few para-teachers have resumed their posts at different places, those sitting on ‘Dharna’ have planned to go to Delhi and protest there to be heard.
“We will conduct our protest at New Delhi and gherao PMO if our demands are not fulfilled in coming days. Besides conducting a rally, all protesters will also conduct a meeting with village education committee members and panchayats leaders. State government simply cannot terminate 72,000 para teachers and deploy new candidates,” said president of Jharkhand para teachers Sangh Sanjay Dubey.
On the other hand, the State government too is very clear about its stance and has instructed all the DCs to act as per the guidelines issued to them. “As per decided by the State government, October 25 was the deadline for all these para teachers to resume their post. Instructions have already been issued to all the respective DCs to terminate all those teachers who are violating the norms of central government. Several para teachers have resumed their posts at Jamshedpur, Sahibganj and Chatra,” said JEPC Project Director, Mukesh Kumar.
“As per Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) norms, it is practically not possible to recruit all the para teachers as permanent teaching staffs at government schools. 50 per cent reservation is already given to them in State. The Government also needs to think about the status of all JTET pass teachers,” added Kumar.
Staying away from their native places, several para teachers from various districts have gathered at Jaipal Singh Stadium and are on protest since October 20 here. Staying with minimum facilities, para teachers will conduct meetings with the gram panchayat members and school management committees (SMCs) on November 9 and 10 to decide further plan of action.
Notably, all these teachers have been deputed on ad-hoc basis under the central government scheme of SSA, 2002. The pay scale at present of these para teachers is between Rs 6,800 to Rs 8,400 per month. The para teachers have been protesting from January 2016 for job regularization.
Protestors claim that large numbers of post of primary teachers are lying vacant in State but the State Government is not initiating the recruitment drive for these posts and have planned to conduct another examination in November.