Looking Back 2024: 2024 saw teachers protesting throughout year over pending issues

Last week, state Education Secretary Kamal Kishore reportedly issued an order citing the “rule of no work, no pay”. This came as a warning to teachers of the school education and higher institutions, stressing that participating in agitations, demonstrations and protests would invite wage cuts as it adversely affects students’ education. This is being seen as a response to protests by teacher unions over various demands, including regularisation of jobs and pay scale revisions.

This also defines the year 2024 in context of teachers vs the Education Department. 2024 can be described as a year of protests for teachers of public education system, and the entire year saw demonstrations and protests led by state bodies of Democratic Teachers Front, Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers Union and Computer Teacher union against the promised perks by the state government. The year started with the General Elections and ended with the civic body polls, which brought several issues voiced by teachers under spotlight.

DTF Punjab opened a front against the Punjab Chief Minister and the Education Minister for ignoring the demands of teachers for the last two and a half years. DTF district president Ashwani Awasthi said pending regular orders of the Other Distance Learning teachers and 14 Hindi teachers of state cadre and failing to meet vacancy demand of the teaching faculties in the schools have long been ignored. Their demand to fill vacancies of ETTs and master cadre teachers in government schools across the state saw several protests across different schools in Tarn Taran, Patti, Khadoor Sahib and Bhikhiwind subdivisions. Also, stressing on the revival of allowances that were stopped, reinstatement of the Old Pension Scheme and wage hike for mid-day meal workers remained unsolved.

The relay fast of computer teachers in government schools, who have been protesting in Sangrur for several months, was another highlight. They have been demanding merger with the education department despite being regular. Their other demands include implementation of the 6th Pay Commission, besides a government job for family members of 100 deceased computer teachers.

1158 Assistant Professors and Librarians Front of Punjab, have been demanding that appointment letters should be issued to 344 assistant professors (142 of Punjabi, 154 of English, 30 of Hindi, 15 of geography and three of education) and 67 librarians, who were waiting for the same for the past several months. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had upheld the recruitment process of 1,091 assistant professors and 67 librarians on September 23 this year. Over 600 assistant professors had already joined their duties in government colleges.

The protesters also urged the state government to complete the recruitment process of 1,158 assistant professors and librarians by issuing appointment letters to the remaining selected 344 assistant professors and 67 librarians.

The Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union also held protests in the later half of the year, with key demands of teachers, including the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations and the release of enhanced grants. They criticised the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) for the delay, noting that files regarding the fixation of the Seventh Pay Commission have been pending for the last year. Lack of action on the part of Director, Higher Education, the Secretary, Higher Education, and the Minister for Higher Education despite the notification being issued two years ago also came in for criticism.