TET-qualified teachers seek regular jobs

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 15

Members of the TET Qualified Unemployed BEd Teachers’ Union staged a protest and raised slogans against the state government for not providing them regular jobs. The protesters also submitted a memorandum of their demands to Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal.

They have been staging protests here for the past three months. In the Sunday’s protest members of the SSA/RMSA teachers union, BKU Dakonda, BKU Ekta Ugrahan, Punjab Kisan Union, Punjab Students’ Union, Democratic Teachers’ Front also participated.

Leader of the union Raj Kumar said: “The state Education Minister and higher officials of the Education Department assured us that demands of the unemployed BEd teachers would be taken up during the Cabinet meeting scheduled on December 18. If the government retracts from its decision and does not come up with a comprehensive plan to fulfill our unmet demands, then we will conduct a state-wide protest on December 25, in Sangrur, where various members of farmers, workers and students unions would join us.”

State president of the union Balraj Singh said, “Our demands include that for recruitment of BEd teachers, the condition of minimum 55 per cent marks in graduation and for ETT teachers’ appointment, the eligibility criterion of graduation, must be abolished. We also demand that the state government must issue a notification for the appointment for 15,000 posts for BEd teachers and 12,000 posts for ETT teachers on an immediate basis and age limit must be fixed from 37 years to 42 years.”