PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
Thousands of government school teachers organised a massive protest in Parade Ground here on Saturday in support of their nine point demands. Under the banner of the Prathmik Shikshak Sangh (PSS), the powerful association of the primary school teachers, the protesters demanded that the government remove the compulsion of passing the Teacher Aptitude Test (TET) for the serving teachers.
The teachers assembled at the Parade Ground in the morning and from there started a March to the State secretariat. The protesters however were stopped by the police near Astley Hall. The president of the Chamoli unit of the PSS, Digambar Singh Negi said that the Right to Education Act was implemented to ensure quality education and a uniform education system in the country. Under this act, a provision of TET was made to strengthen the education system and improve the teaching standards.
He said that after an order of the Supreme Court on September 01, 2025 all the teachers appointed before the implementation of the RTE in April 2010 have been directed to pass the TET. The teachers above 55 years of age have been given exemption from the said date and have been ordered to continue in service but they have been instructed not to be promoted in case they do not pass the TET.
Terming the order as impractical, the PSS leader said the future of 25 lakh teachers in the country including about 18,000 in Uttarakhand is at stake, due to which all the teachers and their family dependents are apprehensive about their future.
The teachers also demanded that the old pension scheme (OPS) should be reinstated and the golden card scheme should be revamped.
