The agitating association of Government school guest teachers got morale boosting support from former Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari on Monday. The aging leader visited the protest site where the members of the association are camping and assured his full support to them.
Amid lusty cheers from a large gathering of guest teachers, Tiwari said that teacher is teacher and there is nothing which can be called a guest teacher. The veteran leader assured that he would himself talk to the Governor of Uttarakhand for their reappointment.
The non-agenarian leader was accompanied by his wife Ujjwala and son Rohit Shekhar. Addressing the gathering, the president of the association, Shanti Swarup said that guest teachers were appointed by a Government order but now there services were terminated without assigning any reason. He said that the association would continue its struggle till their demand of reappointment and increase in remuneration is accepted.
The State education department had inducted 6,214 guest teachers to teach in the vacant posts of lecturers and lecturer Teachers (lTs) on contract basis. These teachers were removed on April 1 as their contract expired. Now under the banner of the association these teachers are organizing a sit-in.
He said that these teachers worked with dedication to uplift the academic environment in the Government schools and it is a fact that the standard of teaching has improved in the schools of Uttarakhand due to the efforts of guest teachers.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat wrote a letter to Governor of Uttarakhand KK Paul on the day and requested him that services of more than 6,000 guest teachers should be retained by the education department. In the letter Rawat said that these teachers were appointed on a stipend of Rs 15,000 per month so that studies are not affected in the Government schools of the State due to absence of teachers.