Jharkhand para teachers are again up in arms over the issues of their regularization and wage fixation. The teachers, under the banner of Ekikrit Para Sikshak Sangharsh Morcha (EPSSM), have planned protest in the State and they claimed it to be continued till the government meets their demands.
EPSSM member Sanjay Dubey said, “The State Government had assured regularization and wage fixation, but now we have come to know that the state government is only interested in increasing the honorarium of teachers. The government has once again cheated the para teachers.”
Dubey claimed that they came to know about the government plan on Saturday, when para teachers were called for a meeting. The draft resolution presented by the state government clearly mentions increasing the honorarium and not granting salaries to teachers.
The para teacher association member said that as per the draft, para teachers who have cleared TET will get an increase of 50 per cent in their honorarium, while those who have not cleared TET will get 40 per cent hike in honorarium.
A para teacher requesting anonymity said that the government has not increased the honorarium for the past three years even if the government increases the honorarium it will not be sufficient. The association member said that our agitation was for salary and service regularization and not increasing honorarium.
The para teacher association protesting against the government draft has planned agitation such as submitting memorandum to MLAs. The para teachers association has also threatened to carry out an agitation on December 29, the second anniversary of Soren government if their demand is not met.
The para teachers association had postponed their agitation after the Jharkhand government decided to increase the honorarium of the 65,000-odd para teachers and provide additional facilities to these ad-hoc teachers on the lines of neighbouring Bihar.
At present there are around 65,000 para teachers working in Jharkhand and out of these, 13000 teachers are TET qualified. Once their service is regularised para teachers will be able to work till 60 years of age. They will be entitled for a pay scale of Rs 5,200-Rs20,000 besides three percent increase in pay scale per year.
On the lines of Bihar, teachers will have to appear for a limited examination for their regularisation. The limited examination may carry 100 marks and as per the Bihar model para teachers from general category will have to achieve minimum 45 per cent marks and rest 40 per cent to qualify the examination. Those who possess a TET certificate will be exempted from limited examination.
Meanwhile, State HRD Minister, Jagarnath Mahto will hold a meeting with representatives of para teachers' associations and will try to end the deadlock on Tuesday.