Striking staff threaten to boycott school exams

Koraput: Intensifying their stir to pressure the government to meet their demand, members of the Odisha primary education programme authority (Opepa) employees services association have threatened not to cooperate during the annual examination of primary and upper primary schools scheduled to be held in March.
Around 1,200 contractual staff of the association are on a dharna at the Lower PMG in Bhubaneswar since February 4, demanding regularisation of their jobs. Prior to the dharna, the association members had worn black badges on February 1 and 2 while discharging their duties.

“The staff of all the 30 districts of the state may boycott the ensuing annual examination of the primary and upper primary schools if their demand is not fulfilled,” said Bichitrananda Jena, president of the association.

These contractual staff, who were appointed at various points of time between 1996 and 2011, lashed out at the state government for not regularising their jobs, blocking their pay hike and depriving them of benefits of social security schemes. The association has demanded that the chief minister Naveen Patnaik intervene to resolve the crisis at the earliest.

“A majority of us have been working for the past 22 years as contractual staff. On several occasions, we demanded regularisation of our jobs but to no avail. However, this time we are determined to see our demand is met,” said Biswaranjan Parichha, general secretary of the association.

An official source said contractual staff play a pivotal role in conducting the annual examination of Classes I to VIII conducted at district level under the supervision of Opepa as they are engaged in preparing, printing and despatching of questions papers to the schools. Also, after the evaluation of the answer papers, they are engaged in tabulation of the marks.

School and mass education minister Badrinarayan Patra could not be contacted for comment as repeated calls to his mobile number and office number went unanswered.