Arunachal Pradesh: School teachers boycott state board, CBSE exams to meet protest demands

Itanagar: Aggrieved over the non-fulfillment of their long-pending demands, government teachers in schools in Arunachal Pradesh have decided to boycott the coming state board examination and if needed, the CBSE examinations.

The state board examinations are slated to commence on February 3. The teachers, who are agitating under the aegis of Arunachal Teachers’ Association (ATA), the apex teachers' body in the state, have appealed to the students’ bodies in the state to support their cause.

ATA is demanding enhancement of earned leave of school teachers from 10 to 20 days or increase in the retirement age of teachers to 62 and immediate renovation and construction of all dilapidated school infrastructure and teachers’ quarters.

It also demanded complete bifurcation of the directorate of elementary and secondary education up to the block level, speeding up rectification of recruitment rules of all categories of teachers by this year. In addition to this, they also demanded no random appointments in the post of district adult education officer, assistant project officer and block education officer till then, ATA central executive committee president Kipa Kechak told reporters.

Review of the integrated scheme for school education and induction of the deputy state project director from the parent department are the other demands, he said.

“The state government is showing step motherly attitude to our genuine demands despite several representations. We will boycott the state board exams slated from February 3. If the situation compels, we will also boycott the CBSE exams," Kechak said.

ATA secretary general Jummar Kena informed that the school buildings constructed in the 1970s are in "very bad shape". The government teachers in the state sported black badges from January 27 to February 1 in the first phase of their protest against the state government’s alleged lack of response to their demands.