Will boycott exam duty if demands not met: lecturers
Members of Government School Lecturers Union, Punjab, have threatened to boycott annual exams, which are beginning March 1, it the state government failed to fulfil their demands. A decision in this regard was taken in a state-level meeting of the union at Government Senior Secondary School, Boys, Jawahar Nagar, Ludhiana, on Tuesday.
Members of Government School Lecturers Union, Punjab, have threatened to boycott annual exams, which are beginning March 1, it the state government failed to fulfil their demands. A decision in this regard was taken in a state-level meeting of the union at Government Senior Secondary School, Boys, Jawahar Nagar, Ludhiana, on Tuesday.
Talking to Hindustan Times, union vice-president Sukhdev Singh Rana, said, "We are struggling since 2004 and demanding higher proportional representation in appointment to the post of principal. There are 12,642 lecturers in Punjab and their quota is 55%. On the other hand, 10,665 headmasters have 30% quota. There are 10,225 vocational lecturers and their quota is 15%. If the number of lecturers is more than others, our quota should be enhanced from 55% to 81%."
"In November last, we had a meeting with state education minister Sikander Singh Maluka and he has assured us of fulfilling our demands, but nothing has been done so far," Rana said.
The union vice-president added that on January 7 they had a meeting with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, who asked education secretary Anjali Bawara to bring up this issue in the cabinet meeting, but at the January 20 cabinet meeting the matter was not taken up. "If our demands are not met we will plan rallies and protests against the state government," said Rana.
There are many lecturers who were appointed since 1993 and had not been promoted as principal till now though many of them are nearing retirement.
On lecturers' demands, education minister Sikander Singh Maluka said, "Their demands are genuine and we are planning to increase their quota as they are more in numbers than headmasters and vocational lecturers. At the time when proportional representation was decided the number of lecturers was less so their quota was decided accordingly."