26 January,2014 09:30 AM IST | | Kranti Vibhute
Students may suffer if teachers’ body goes ahead with threat to boycott exams. Government yet to respond to most of their demands
HSC exam boycott, Fifth Pay Commission, teachers, students, Mumbai
With just over a week to go before the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations kick off in the state with the oral exams, the state government is yet to get back to the Mumbai Junior Teachers Union (MJTU) with regards to their protest over payments and other issues.
The teachers are pressing for several important demands such as the payment of the Fifth Pay Commission approved pay scales from 1996 onwards. Meanwhile, it is the HSC students who stand to lose a lot due to the strike. File Photo
The teachers body has now said they would be writing to their respective college principals conveying their decision to boycott the HSC board exam.
Soon after a fresh round of protest by the teachers on Monday, the government agreed to one of their demands to count unaided service of teachers for senior scale and selection grade. However, the teachers are pressing for several other important demands such as the payment of the Fifth Pay Commission approved pay scales from 1996 onwards (in retrospect), the approval of over 2000 new teachers' posts and other issues.
Anil Deshmukh, general secretary, Maharashtra federation of Junior College Teachers' Organisation, said, "Our other demands are yet to be fulfilled and we are firm on our boycott."
Echoing the sentiments of Deshmukh, Amar Singh, President of MJTU, said, "The government has only agreed to one of our demands - to count unaided service of teachers for senior scale and selection grade - and not yet fulfilled any of the other demands. If they do not take a decision soon, then we will write to all principals of junior colleges to let them know that we are boycotting the board exams."
GK Mhamane, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, (MSBSHSE) chairperson, said, "We did our job of forwarding the teachers' letter to government. Now, the matter is between the government and the teachers. One of their demands has been approved. We have not got any guidelines yet on what to do if teachers go on strike."
Clearly the interest of the students is on very few peoples' minds.
