TET-pass teachers seek regular jobs

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 22

Demanding regular jobs with full pay scale, members of the TET Qualified Unemployed B Ed Teachers’ Union took out a protest march from Teachers’ Home to the office of Finance Minister Manpreet Badal on Sunday.

Sukhwinder Singh, president of the union, said, “When we cleared the TET, the minimum percentage criteria was 50 and 45 per cent for students belonging to the general and reserved categories, respectively. The state government recently amended the fixed criteria. Now, the minimum percentage to apply for a government job is 55 per cent. It is against the Union Government’s guidelines. Teachers are getting overage. After a certain age, we won’t be able to apply for government jobs. We have been working on quite low salaries for the past eight years, but the government has not regularised our services till date.”

Notably, members of the union have been staging parallel protests against the government across different districts of the state.

Sukhwinder added, “Around 30,000 posts of teacher are lying vacant in government schools following 52,000 new admissions this season. Why are teachers not getting jobs despite fulfilling all eligibility conditions? Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had promised to give a government job to one member of every family in the state. But, the government has failed to fulfil its promise made before the elections. The government’s apathetic attitude towards our long-pending demands is shameful.”