Congress expresses solidarity with agitating teachers in Arunachal

The Congress on Thursday expressed solidarity with government school teachers in Arunachal Pradesh who have declared that they will boycott the state board examination commencing from February 3 and the CBSC examinations if their long-pending demands are not met.

The party criticised the unwillingness of the government to sit across the table and resolve the issues raised by Arunachal Teachers’ Association (ATA) the apex teachers body in the state.

The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee media chairman Tage Lapung said in a statement that the party is of the firm view that the state government should have an educated approach toward the teaching communities and the problems in the education department as a whole.

“It is important that the problems of the teaching community and education department be addressed with honour,” Lapung said.

If the teachers boycott and stay away from the examination process it will have a disastrous effect for the students, the government as well as the education department. “The government should come forward in the issue,” he said.

The teachers, who are agitating under the aegis of ATA, have appealed to the students’ bodies in the state to support their cause. They sported black badges from January 27 to February 1 in the first phase of their protest against the state government’s alleged lack of response to their demands. Kipa Kechak has said that the state government is showing step motherly attitude to the genuine demands of the teachers despite several representations.

ATA is demanding enhancement of earned leave of school teachers from 10 to 20 days or increase in the retirement age of teachers to 62 and immediate renovation and construction of all dilapidated school infrastructure and teachers’ quarters.

It is also demanding complete bifurcation of the directorate of elementary and secondary education up to the block level, speeding up rectification of recruitment rules of all categories of teachers by this year and no random appointments in the post of district adult education officer, assistant project officer and block education officer till then.

Review of the integrated scheme for school education and induction of the deputy state project director from the parent department are the other demands of the association.

Itanagar, Feb. 2 (PTI)