On November 11, hundreds of teachers in Jharkhand gathered at the central office of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Ranchi, demanding pay fixation. These teachers, who have qualified Jharkhand Teacher's Eligibility Test (JTET), claimed that their pay scales are yet to be fixed despite being successful in the examination, as stated in a report by PTI.

Speaking on this, Simanta Ghosal, member of Jharkhand Rajya TET Safal Adhyapak Samanwai Samiti, said “Our only demand is to fix the pay scale for around 13,000 teachers who cleared the TET exam." Further, he claimed that during a high-level meeting held in June 2020, providing a pay scale to these teachers was recommended.

“The government had also taken suggestions from the advocate general on our issue. He said that those para teachers who are trained and have passed the TET examination can be provided a pay scale,” the protesting teacher said. Additionally, he also said they have been staging a demonstration near Raj Bhavan for the past 81 days to press their demand.

Giving more details about the gherao, Ghosal said, “Today, we gheraoed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) office and met its Central General secretary Vinod Kumar Pandey. He admitted that our demand was genuine and assured us that he would take it to the government."

Teachers threaten

These teachers threatened that if their demand was not considered appropriately, they would intensify their protest and may hold agitation during the celebration of Statehood Day on November 15, as stated in a report by PTI. 

Ghosal said that the government was going to recruit 26,000 teachers and 50 per cent of seats have been reserved for candidates who cleared the TET exam. “We demand TET-qualified teachers to be recruited directly for 13,000 seats as they have been teaching for the past 20 years,” he said.

JMM Central General Secretary Vinod Kumar Pandey said that TET-qualified para teachers came to him in support of their demand for pay fixation. “They have been on dharna near Raj Bhavan for the past several days. I heard their voice seriously. I assured them that I would take their demand to the government and request appropriate action. I hope the government will take action in their favour,” Pandey said.