Primary school teachers to continue agitation despite Govt’s appeal

Bhubaneswar: The primary school teachers of Odisha decided to continue their agitation even after the state government appealed to them to withdraw the stir as their demands were being examined.

The steering committee of the Primary School Teachers’ Association took the decision at its meeting on Tuesday following the government’s appeal. The students’ education in around 10,000 primary and upper primary schools in the state have been affected due to the agitation.

As teaching in primary and upper primacy schools across Odisha remained crippled for the fifth day on Tuesday due to agitation by teachers, the state government urged them to withdraw the stir as their demands are being examined.

The teachers, who are on mass leave since September 8, said they decided to continue their agitation as their talks with the government on Monday had failed to yield any satisfying results.

In its appeal to the teachers, the government said it had constituted a five-member sub-committee to review their demands. The sub-committee would submit its report to the inter-ministerial committee after examining the demands and then the government would take the final call.

Among other things, the teachers have demanded regularisation of their jobs, implementation of career advancement policy in case of art and physical education teachers and abolition of ex-cadre of mass education teachers are some of our demands.