Guntur streets echo with teachers' cry for service rule certainty

GUNTUR, April 21: The Progressive Recognised Teachers Union (PRTU), Andhra Pradesh State unit, staged a peaceful dharna at the Guntur district headquarters on Tuesday, pressing a wide range of long-pending demands relating to service conditions, pay revisions, and welfare measures for teachers across the State. A memorandum embodying the demands was submitted to the District Collector.

Ghantasala Srinivasarao, Chairman of the AP JAC Guntur district unit and district president of AP NGGO, who attended the event as chief guest, said the problems faced by teachers had remained unresolved for a long time and called upon the government to respond promptly and take steps towards their redressal. He underlined that teacher welfare was indispensable to strengthening the education system.

Key demands

The union's demands centred on several service-related issues. These included the framing of comprehensive service rules, constitution of a new Pay Revision Commission (PRC) with a 30 per cent interior relief, and abolition of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) with restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Teachers who entered service through the 2003 DSC were specifically demanded to be brought under OPS. The union also called for clearance of pending Dearness Allowance arrears, GPF, APGLI, and Earned Leave encashment dues.

Other demands included restoration of GO 302, filling of Junior Lecturer promotion vacancies, implementation of the 70:30 ratio — allotting 70 per cent of Secondary Grade Teacher promotions to SA Telugu and Hindi posts — and opening of GPF accounts for Municipal Corporation teachers. The union further sought reclassification of School Complex Headmasters as Grade-1 HMs, and promotions for Urdu and Oriya language teachers.

Staffing and institutional demands

The union demanded appointment of Hostel Welfare Officers in tribal residential schools, deployment of Data Entry Operators in every high school and model primary school, and restriction of teacher rationalisation exercises to once every five years. It also sought exemption of in-service teachers from the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET).

Further, the PRTU called for merger of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, Model Schools, and Gurukulas into the government system under the Master Teacher Scale (MTS), regularisation of Art, Craft, Drawing, and Physical Education teachers working under SSA as full-time employees, and extension of MTS benefits to CRT and CMRT staff with a 60 per cent wage hike.

The union also demanded implementation of the Employee Health Scheme (EHS) with insurance coverage for both government and private school teachers, and immediate resolution of issues faced by aided school teachers.

The leaders urged the District Collector to consider the demands sympathetically, recommend them to the State government, and take initiative for their early resolution.

Among those who participated were G.V.S. Ramakrishna, D. Srinivasareddy, Rambabau, Shyam Moses, M. Venkateswarrao, M. Chandrakishor, Y. Nagamani, and Sheikh Abdul Razak.