The Block Grant high school teachers, whose longest-ever cease-work agitation had been called off after the State Government assured them full grant-in-aid (GIA), have been taken for a ride once again several months after resuming duty.
They are now being told to be given a 20 per cent hike over their salary under Block Grant while their demand for regular service in GIA mode has been ignored. And, when the teachers again came back to the State capital for stir and were proceeding towards the Navin Niwas to meet the Chief Minister, the police beat them black and blue.
The Government by assaulting the teachers has tarnished its image and turned out to be an aggressor. The teachers, whose demand for GIA was admitted as genuine since they have been working under several hardships for last many years without regular job and pay, had attracted the attention by shutting down their schools hitting education of lakhs of poor and underprivileged students in rural areas. The whole of Odisha had shown solidarity with their cause. Under fire from several quarters, the Government had formed a Ministerial panel and assured of fulfilling their demand.
The teachers had insisted on a notification for GIA first before they resumed duty, but the Government did the sugar-coated talk and succeeded in prevailing over them to return them to their schools. However, months later, the Government has not decided to provide them fair and due grant under GIA and still sticks to its old stand to continue the Block Grant.
By doing so the Naveen Patnaik Government has breached the faith with thousands of teachers and become unreliable. It owes an answer not just to the victim teachers, but to the people of the State as regards its commitment to quality education in rural and far-flung areas.