Teachers belonging to Prathmik Shikshak Sangh (PSS) organised a massive protest at the State education directorate on Wednesday. On the day, the primary teachers from Pauri district protested against the department’s failure in Special Basic Teachers Certificate (BTC) fiasco in which it was learnt after nearly 16 years that the Special BTC courses conducted in past by the District Institute Education and Training (DIET) are not recognised by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE).
Teachers from Pauri district started assembling at the education directorate located at Nanoorkheda here from morning. Almost all primary schools in the Pauri district remained closed on the day expressing solidarity with the special BTC teachers.
Addressing the teachers the General Secretary of the PSS, Digvijay Singh said that the government should ensure that the Special BTC courses which were conducted by following all required process and as per the Government Order (GO) of Uttarakhand government get recognition of NCTE. He said that the association would take the fight to the logical end. The President of Pauri unit of PSS, Manoj Jugaran said that no special BTC qualified teacher would enroll for the bridge course of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). He said that the thousand of teachers in state are being harassed for no fault of their own.
The teachers are apprehensive that after registering with NIOS for bridge course their seniority would be affected.
The stand of the NCTE to not give recognition to Special BTC in retrospection means that these courses conducted in different District Institutes of Teachers Training (DIET) after birth of Uttarakhand are of no use now. It also renders more than 13000 teachers as ineligible to teach primary classes.
The NCTE has set up a deadline of March, 2019 by which all untrained primary teachers should complete the Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd). However Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree holders would be fit to teach in primary classes after doing a six month bridge course.
PSS, the powerful association of teachers has released a date wise plan of stir under which teachers from different districts would hold Dharnas at State education directorate on rotational basis. After the Dharna of teachers from Pauri, the teachers of Tehri would hold stir at directorate on Thursday.