With the talks between the Rajkeeya Shikshak Sangh (RSS) and State Education Minister proving inconclusive on Wednesday, a pall of uncertainty prevails over the Board Examination of Uttarakhand Vidhyalayi Shiksha Parishad (UVSP) which is scheduled to begin from March 3. RSS, the association of the lecturer and lecturer teachers (lTs) of Government schools of the State, is threatening to boycott the board examinations if the Government fails to accept its demands.
On Tuesday, the Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani held prolonged discussions with the representatives of the teacher organisation. The meeting was attended by top officials of the education department which included Additional Chief Secretary, S Raju and Director General (DG) of school education, D Senthil Pandian. Informing about the meeting, the President of the RSS, Ram Singh Chauhan said that the association is determined to start its agitation from March 01 if the state government does not gives acceptance of the demands in writing to them. However, the Education Minister, Naithani claimed that demands of teachers like promotion and transfer act are accepted and sounded confident that the teacher organization would withdraw its board examination boycott call. He said that some demands of teachers needed clearance of finance and a meeting with the state Chief Minister is scheduled on Wednesday on the issue. When asked about the contingency plan of government in case the teachers went ahead with the plan of boycott, the Minister confidently said that such a situation would not arise.
It is worth mentioning here that the numerical strength of the lTs and lecturers in the state is about 25000 and these teachers are instrumental for smooth conduction of the all important examination in which more than three lakh students are scheduled to participate across the state. Services of more than 15000 teachers are required as invigilators per day for smooth conduction of these examinations. On the call boycott call given by the association, the department retaliated by invoking the provision of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). By invoking this act the department has enforced a moratorium on strike or work boycott for next
six months. The leaders of RSS have made it clear that they would not get bogged down by such acts of intimidation. Experts are of the view that the department should prepare a contingency plan in case the teachers decide to go ahead with their threat of boycott of board examination so that the future of lakhs of students is not jeopardise.