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40,000 secondary school teachers join contractual teachers’ strike in Bihar
The teachers began their strike under the banner of Bihar Secondary School Teachers’ Association (BSSTA) to press their demands including equal pay for equal work, removal of discrepancies in reimbursement of salary under the Seventh pay commission and sparing the teachers from non-academic.
More than 40,000 secondary and higher secondary school teachers joined the contractual teachers’ indefinite strike from Tuesday, affecting teaching in all government and government aided schools across the state.
The teachers began their strike under the banner of Bihar Secondary School Teachers’ Association (BSSTA) to press their demands including equal pay for equal work, removal of discrepancies in reimbursement of salary under the Seventh pay commission and sparing the teachers from non-academic.
District secretary of BSSTA Sudhir Kumar said, “On the first day of strike, more than 200 government and government aided schools remain affected due to the strike. The teachers locked the gate of government schools and sat outside the campuses. Besides, the nominated teachers for evaluation duty denied collecting their appointment letters from schools giving a signal that they will boycott intermediate answer sheet evaluation duty starting from February 26.”
Already over 4.5 lakh contractual teachers have been on strike from February 17 under Bihar Rajya Shikshak Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti (BRSSS) banner in support of their eight-point demands.
Prem Chandra Kumar, Patna region convener of BRSSS, said, “On February 27, teachers will stage a protest demonstration at block headquarters with their family members. On March 1, we will gherao the government bungalows of legislators.”
President of BSSTA Kedar Nath Pandey, also an MLC, raised the issues of striking contractual teachers in the council and demanded immediate framing of service conditions for all teachers engaged by the government on contract basis.
Pandey also met chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday and demanded inclusion of framing the service conditions of teachers in the governor’s address to the joint session.
Meanwhile, the Patna high court last week had pulled up the state government for its dilly-dallying approach in dealing with teachers’ issues and directed it to frame the service condition of contractual teachers within four months.
