The district unit of Karnataka State Primary Schools’ Association on Thursday called upon State government to bring changes to the process of identification of excess teachers in higher primary schools by excluding the headmaster and physical education teacher.
Speaking at the district-level Teachers’ Day celebrations here, association president Shivashankar Bhat K, said the current process of identification of excess teachers and transfer to other schools has a lacunae that needs to be addressed. While looking at the student-teacher ratio, the headmaster and physical education teacher should be excluded. The process should ensure that there is teacher for each subject, he said.
Mr. Bhat said comprehensive changes in the cadre and recruitment rules have been among the several demands of teachers that have remained unaddressed. “We had actually called for a protest today, but called it off only because of an assurance from the Chief Minister. If our issues are not addressed, we will be forced to protest,” he said.
Teachers, Mr. Bhat said, are pained over the delay in completion of the process of request and compulsory transfers. “The process has been postponed eight times,” he said, adding that teachers are being forced to make several trips to Bengaluru for completion of transfers.
The other demands include consideration of graduate primary school teachers as graduate teachers and fixing them a pay scale. The State government should scrap the new pension scheme and bring back the old one. All primary schools should be allowed to start LKG and UKG classes, Mr. Bhat said.
MLA U.T. Khader and MLC Bhoje Gowda felicitated the best teachers from the district and from Mangaluru South education block on the occasion.