Congress failed to deliver on electoral promises: Teachers

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 10

The teaching fraternity from the district seems to be in no mood to forget and forgive the incumbent Congress government just as all political parties pace up election activities. The mood of teachers, in both secondary and higher education sector, remains disappointing towards the incumbent government, as they hope for a change of guard in the upcoming polls.

Teachers across the state, for the past three months have been organising landmark protests, against the state government. Seeking solutions to unemployment, regularisation roadblocks, wage hike, schools teacher unions had take to streets on several occasions, alleging the government of backtracking on election promises. University and college teachers unions had called for total education bandh since December last year against the non-implementation of 7th Pay Commission wages and delinking from UGC. Calling the incumbent government, a failure in terms of elevating the standards of education in the last five years, the teachers said they wanted action from the government rather than words.

“This government has not delivered in any account in the last five years, not just in field of education but also otherwise. A few days back, the Cabinet announced Rs 2,000 Internet allowance per student for higher education, just to woo voters as the higher education students are above 18 years of age. Why are the thousands of school students in the state, who were forced to study online due to pandemic, not, being given this allowance? New constituent colleges are being announced but why weren’t the vacant posts that exist in current colleges filled? There is no funding for public sector colleges, and most recruitments currently being done are contractual. All these lapses are going to impact the higher education in future,” said Lakhwinder Singh, president, GNDU teachers association.

A few days ago, when the Code of Conduct was implemented, abruptly ending college and university teachers’ protests, Prof GS Sekhon, district president of PFUCTO (Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations) had said they were ready to campaign against the incumbent Congress government.

Accusing most traditional parties of ideological bankruptcy, Gurpratap Singh Khaira, assistant professor at Hindu College, said, there was a time when the accountability could be expected from the chosen representatives. “There have been massive rallies, demonstrations by teachers, seeking implementation of the 7th Pay Commission wages, but the demand was completely ignored. When senior teachers were on hunger strike, they were assured that the sanction of wages will be done, but it turned out to be a hollow promise. Only in Punjab, pension for teachers was abolished. How does the government expect teachers to work on salaries lower than that of a daily wager and then claim that the state has world-class higher-education standards?”

Keshav Kohli, president of the Physical education teachers’ union, Punjab, shared that unemployment in education sector has been the biggest issue that the incumbent government failed to tackle during their tenure. “While traditional parties encourage young, educated leaders to attract voters, qualified teachers have been not able to get jobs, despite their efforts. In past few weeks, the incumbent government might have announced recruitments, but the fact remains that there needs a lot to be done. The next government must take note and work towards creating new recruitments and offer better incentives to teachers,” he said.