Education Minister Jagarnath Mahto on Monday announced that the State Government would fulfil some of the major demands of para teachers and provide honorarium and facilities to them on the lines of Bihar Government.
In Bihar, the Government has appointed para teachers for 60 years by taking an assessment test. Along with this, the pay scale has also been fixed.
Like Bihar, the para teachers working in Jharkhand would retire at the age 60 years. Also, the para teachers will get all the perks and facilities on the lines of para teachers at neighbouring State gets, leaving aside pension scheme. The State Government would make the announcement in this connection on December 29-the day on which the JMM/Congress alliance government headed by Chief Minister Hemant Soren would complete two years of government.
The decision to this effect was taken at the meeting of para teachers’ representatives with State School Education and Literacy Minister Jagarnath Mahto and also attended by senior education department officials. In the meeting it was also decided that para teachers working at government schools have to give Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), under which those teachers who qualify in TET will retain their jobs.
The decision which was taken at today’s meeting included that para teachers would get honorarium on lines of Bihar counterparts. Women teachers will get maternity leave. The para teachers will avail leave and other facilities which the government employees in State get.
Like State Government employees, the para teachers will retire at the age of 60 years. There are around 65,000 para teachers in the state and many of them are serving for the past 20 years. They have been agitating for regularisation of service and respectable pay for the past several years.
Para teachers across the state have been agitating for a long time under the banner of Unified Para Teachers Association. They have been constantly vocal about demands like non-payment of honorarium, preparation of manuals in favour of para teachers and making them permanent.
Even during the Raghubar Das led Government, the movement of para teachers was widespread. During that time, there has been a fierce movement on behalf of the para teachers several times.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren had assured these para teachers before becoming the CM that the problems of para teachers would be removed as soon as their government was formed, but even after one and a half years of government formation, the demands of para teachers remain the same.