Teachers stage demonstration

Primary and middle school teachers staging a demonstration at Vannarpettai in Palayamkottai on Wednesday.

TIRUNELVELI

Families of 54 teachers working with Tirunelveli Diocese Trust Association schools being administered by the Tirunelveli CSI Diocese are working with meagre salary for eight years as the Department of School Education is refusing to give them ‘appointment approval.’

The teachers, who submitted a petition in the Office of Chief Educational Officer here on Wednesday and staged demonstration at Vannarpet, said they were appointed in 2014 after passing the Teacher Eligibility Test in 2013. But, they, were not given ‘appointment approval’.

Even though the number of students being handled by these teachers is well above the prescribed norms of the government, District Educational Officer is refusing to give the approval as the TDTA schools have “excess teachers” which should be addressed through redeployment.

However, the TDTA management says that the excess teachers who were working with their schools had been redeployed before 2014 itself.

 “Neither the Chief Educational Officer nor the District Educational Officer is ready to give the ‘teacher fixation’ for the TDTA Schools. If the ‘teacher fixation’ is given, we can easily find if the TDTA schools have excess teachers or not. If our schools have excess teachers, we’re open for redeployment. As they delay the process without any reason, we live with meagre consolidated pay being given by the management,” said the teachers.

They said the schools being run by Roman Catholic Church and the Muslims are facing similar problem even though the students’ strength of teachers waiting for ‘appointment approval’ is well above the prescribed norm.

A postgraduate teacher of a government-aided higher secondary school being run by the nuns in Palayamkottai handles 210 students in four classes while the government norm is just 1:40. Though she has students’ strength five times more than the government’s norms, she is being denied ‘appointment approval.’

The DMK government is not ready to look into their demands . “Using the social media, we will take up this issue with people,” said the teachers.