Teachers want old pension scheme revived

Various school teachers’ associations staged a stir on behalf of the Joint Action Council of Tamilnadu Teachers’ Organizations (JACTTO), Vellore district in front of the Collectorate in Arcot Road here on Sunday in support of their 15-point charter of demands.

C. Sekar, Member of the State High Level Committee of JACTTO who inaugurated the agitation said the demands included among other things the scrapping of the contributory pension scheme and the revival of the old pension scheme as per the election-eve assurance given by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in 2011, fitting the secondary grade teachers, special teachers and middle school headmasters in the pay scale of Rs.9300-34800 as per PB2 (Pay Band 2) and postgraduate teachers, higher secondary school teachers and headmasters in the pay scale of Rs.15600-39100 as per PB2 on par with the central government teachers in accordance with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, merger of 50 per cent of dearness allowance with the basic pay, and regularisation of the services and grant of time scale pay from the date of their joining service to those teachers appointed on contract basis between 1986 and 1988, and on consolidated pay basis between 2004 and 2006.

Welfare scheme officers

Another important demand of the JACTTO was appointment of welfare scheme officers in each high / higher secondary school and a taluk-level special officer for elementary and middle schools exclusively for implementation of the 14 welfare schemes for students.

Mr. Sekar said that the task of implementation of the welfare schemes affected the main teaching work, which in turn affected the learning of the students.

Demands

Other demands included abolition of the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) for teachers and appointment of teachers through the district employment offices on the basis of their registration seniority, and payment of pension to all teachers including vocational teachers by taking into account their service on consolidated pay basis.

P. Thandavarayan, Vellore district president of the Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary School Graduate Teachers Association and V. Saravanan, deputy general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Primary and Middle School Graduate Teachers Association presided.

Later, representatives of the JACTTO went to the Collectorate and submitted a memorandum addressed to the Collector, containing their demands.