Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 17

With the release of advertisements for the posts of 4,185 teacher of master cadre by the state government, the ‘pakka morcha’ of the BEd TET Pass Unemployed Teachers’ Union achieved a partial victory on the completion of 50 days of their protest. The advertisement was released by the government on December 16. It seeks online applications from candidates for 4,185 posts of the mastre cadre.

The advt released by govt on Friday reads:

As per Ghar Ghar Rozgar, the Punjab Education Board releases 4,185 posts of various subjects of the master cadre (250 posts of art and craft teachers and 343 posts of lecturer cadre in various subjects) for recruitment and seeks online applications from eligible candidates on the department’s website www.educationrecruitmentboard.com for recruitments. The terms and conditions for these posts are available on the department’s website.

Protesting in Jalandhar since October 28, the union’s morcha is among the earliest protests which began in the city ahead of the upcoming elections. The major demand in Jalandhar has been the release of advertisements for recruitment of 9,000 mastre cadre teachers (especially in the subjects SST, Hindi and Punjabi).

Two teachers — Munish Fazilka and Jaswant Ghubaya — even climbed atop a tank at the Jalandhar bus stand on October 28 and continued to stay there despite their serious health condition for the past 51 days.

Meanwhile, union members have simultaneously been holding morchas outside the Education Minister’s residence near the water tank and elsewhere in the city.

After the release of the notification, a decision regarding the future course of protests will be taken in a state-level meeting of the union this evening. Meanwhile, teachers also indicated a partial reprieve in protests in view of the continuously deteriorating health of their colleague Munish Fazilka who continues protesting atop a water tank even in the biting cold.

Union leader Amndeep Sekha said, “The notification for the posts of 4,185 master cadre teachers was released by the state government on Thursday. The advertisement for the same was released in a newspaper today. We were demanding that the government advertise recruitment of teachers. As per the notification, only half the number of posts has been advertised. We consider it a partial victory of our agitation. At present, we continue with the protest and the decision on the next course of action will be taken after a state-level meeting this evening.” Sekha added, “One of our concerns is also the number of SST, Punjabi and Hindi subject posts included in these 4,185 posts. A majority of our protesting unemployed teachers are SST, Hindi and Punjabi teachers. The notification or the advertisement does not specify how many of the 4,185 posts are meant for these three subjects. Of the 3,704 posts, for which advertisements were previously released by the Education Department, only 152 posts were for these subject (SST, Punjabi and Hindi) teachers. The future course of action will be clear when we get to know the break-up of subjectwise posts in these 4,185 posts.”