10 hours ago
Primary school teachers on padayatra today in protest against govt. failure to keep promise
Government school teachers under the banner of the district unit of Karnataka State Primary School Teachers Association are set to take mass casual leave on Tuesday and participate in a padayatra seeking fulfilment of their long-pending demands placed before the State government.
Association district president Mallayya Guttedar, addressing a press conference here on Monday, said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in September last year promised to provide primary school teachers designation as Graduate Primary Teacher and revise the Cadre and Recruitment (C&R) Rules implemented in 2017. But the State government has failed to deliver its promise even after 11 months, he said.
Mr. Guttedar said that their demands include designating qualified government primary school teachers appointed to teach classes 1 to 7 before 2016 as Graduate Primary Teacher and promotion of senior teachers as headmasters in schools considering their seniority.
He said that nearly 400 posts of headmasters are lying vacant in government schools in Kalaburagi district. He also demanded that teachers should not be assigned non-academic work.
The association members have set a deadline of 15 days for the State government to fulfill their demands, They said that if the State government fails to address them by August 25, then, they will be forced to intensify their agitation.
Replying to a question, Mr. Guttedar clarified that on Tuesday they will not be protesting but the teachers will take out the padayatra from Jagat Circle to the Deputy Commissioner's office and also to the Deputy Director for Public Instructions office and submit a memorandum.
He said that the padayatra will not affect the functioning of schools as 50% of teachers will stay back in schools.
