Congress expresses solidarity with agitating teachers in Arunachal Pradesh

 OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) Thursday expressed solidarity with the agitating government school teachers. Lamenting the unwilling attitude of the government to sit on the table to resolve the issue, as expressed by the Arunachal Teachers' Association (ATA), the party is of the firm view that the State government should have an educated approach towards the teaching communities and the problems in the education department as a whole, APCC media chairman Tage Lapung said in a statement.

Aggrieved over the non-fulfilment of their long-pending demands, government teachers in schools in the northeastern state have decided to boycott the coming state board examination and if needed, the CBSE examinations. The state board examinations are slated to commence from February 3.

The teachers, who are agitating under the aegis of ATA, the apex teachers' body in the state, have appealed to the students' bodies in the state to support their cause. The government teachers in the state sported black badges from January 27 to February 1 in the first phase of their protest against the State government's alleged lack of response to their demands.

"It is important that the problems of the teaching community and education department should be addressed with honour," Lapung said.

Addressing reporters here on Wednesday ATA President Kipa Kechak said, "The State government is showing step-motherly attitude towards our genuine demands despite several representations. We will boycott the State board exams slated from February 3. If the situation compels, we will also boycott the CBSE exams."

ATA is demanding enhancement of earned leave of school teachers from 10 to 20 days or increase in the retirement age of teachers to 62 and immediate renovation and construction of all dilapidated school infrastructure and teachers' quarters.

It also demanded complete bifurcation of the directorate of elementary and secondary education up to the block level, speeding up rectification of recruitment rules of all categories of teachers by this year and no random appointments in the post of district adult education officer, assistant project officer and block education officer till then.

Review of the integrated scheme for school education and induction of the deputy state project director from the parent department are the other demands of the association.

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