Education min requests CM to withdraw cases against para-teachers

Ranchi: Education minister Jagarnath Mahto on Friday said that he has requested chief minister Hemant Soren to withdraw FIRs that were registered against para-teachers in connection with their agitation over various job-related demands in the last five years.
Mahto said the proposal would be sent to the home department and legal opinion would be sought before a decision is made. “But I feel that they should be pardoned,” Mahto added.
It may be stated here that para teachers held several agitations during the term of the erstwhile BJP government in the state.
Around 250 para-teachers were booked during an aggressive agitation launched in Morhabadi ground in Ranchi in November 2018.
The minister has also asked his officials to prepare a proposal for extending the validity of the Jharkhand Teacher’s Eligibility Test (JTET) certificate by two more years. The minister said that due to the Covid outbreak , many teachers who have qualified JTET have not got jobs.
Parimal Kumar, who heads an association of para-teachers, however, pointed out a legal hitch in the process, saying that the JTET teachers have already been given the maximum validity period of seven years as per the guidelines of the National Council for Teacher’s Education. He said that if the government really wants to benefit them, it should relax the age criteria in jobs.