Postgraduate teachers want higher remuneration and better facilities at paper valuation centres in the State. The teachers say the lack of basic amenities such as proper toilets, fans, and drinking water provisions are stressing them out. “Often, we don’t even have good benches to sit or tables,” says K.P.O. Suresh, president of Tamil Nadu Post Graduate Teachers Association. On an average, around 25 lakh students take the class X and class XII exams each year, including those that appear for the general public exams in March/April and the special supplementary exams later in June and October.The association has made repeated appeals to the government to raise the remuneration, Mr. Suresh says. “For the past 10 years, the teachers have been paid ₹5 per paper and are expected to evaluate 24 papers a day. The evaluation process lasts 10 daysThis only stresses us out and we tend to make errors in evaluation. Often, students lose out a seat in engineering or medicine for want of just one mark and we are blamed for such mistakes,” he adds.
According to him, the number of papers that are sent for revaluation is small but it could be avoided. The teachers are expected to take up invigilation and also be part of flying squads but are paid very low, they complain.
The association has suggested reduction in the number of papers to be evaluated per day. “We would like the government to reduce the number of papers to 20 a day. We have been appealing to the government to increase the remuneration to ₹15 per paper. We also want the invigilators to be paid ₹80 per day. We usually end up spending ₹200 to ₹300 from our pocket as the department does not reimburse our expenses,” Mr. Suresh says.
The association has suggested that the government build permanent evaluation centres in each district with the basic amenities that could later be used for correcting TNPSC and UPSC test papers.
The association has issued an ultimatum that it would go on protest if the government does not hold talks to resolve the issue.
