Teacher unions announce massive protest on Feb 22 in Anandpur Sahib

A combined platform of 15 teachers’ organisations in Punjab announced a “joint massive rally” at Anandpur Sahib, the Assembly constituency of Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains, on February 22 to protest the Supreme Court’s directions to teachers to clear the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) for promotions

The issue of mandatory TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) for those recruited before 2011 to remain in the job and get promotion, may become another irritant in the already strained relationship between the Punjab government and government teachers in state.

In this context, in Amritsar district, a large number of teachers also announced participation in the protest scheduled for February 22.

While the teachers say imposition of the condition of qualifying in the TET on teachers who have served for 20-25 years is unjustified, the state is merely following the guidelines after the Supreme Court passed orders making TET mandatory for all states.

“The Central and state governments are using a policy to exploit and threaten the job security of several teachers,” said Ashwani Awasthi.

They demanded that the Punjab government should not be in a hurry and protect the interests of teachers. On February 22, teachers from all over Punjab will hold a grand rally in Anandpur Sahib and more intense protests will be held in the coming days.

A few days back, several district-level delegations of teachers had burnt copies of the letter issued by the Education Department on February 7, in which the condition of qualifying the TET has been imposed for the promotion of Master Cadre teachers, and the letter issued on September 14, 2017, in which the exemption from TET has been cancelled.