Secondary grade teachers warn of fresh round of hunger strike

The teachers’ association on Monday claimed that the State government, which promised to look into their issue before January 7, did not take any steps to solve their issues.

Tamil Nadu State Secondary Grade Teachers Association senior representative C Elango told DT Next that the strike, which was held for five consecutive days a couple of weeks ago, was withdrawn after the School Education Department assured that it would submit a favourable report before the court.

 

“However, it seems that the report has nothing to do with our issues,” he said. According to him, the next course of action would be to launch another strike soon after discussing that in a regional meeting of the association.

Stating that the hunger strike would be indefinite this time, Elango said that the protest will continue till the government finds an amicable solution. “The one-man commission, which was formed by the government to look into our issues, is just an eyewash and delay tactics,” he added.

Protesting teachers, handling Classes 9 and 10, said that they were receiving lesser pay compared to their counterparts handling same classes in the same school. While teachers appointed before May 31, 2009 were receiving Rs 11,300 as salary per month, others appointed after June 1 receive only Rs 7,400.

Around 21,000 teachers get Rs 3,000 less even when they are better qualified. During the third week of December, the secondary teachers went on a protest near DPI complex for five days. 

More than 100 teachers were admitted to the hospital after they fell ill during the demonstration.