Elementary school teachers go on statewide protest

Elementary teachers from government schools went on a statewide protest and refrained from taking classes on Wednesday demanding a higher pay revision. They handed over leave letters to the principals of their respective schools as a mark of protest and walked out of classes.

The elementary teachers are demanding a pay revision on a par with the central government teachers. In Trichy, as many as 3,000 teachers handed over leave letters on Wednesday. As many as 716 elementary schools in the district were affected by the protest.

Teachers also urged the state to abolish the TET (Teachers Eligibility Test) and pension scheme that was introduced by the government along with several other demands. The decision was taken by the elementary teachers across the state in a recent meeting that was held among them.

"Pay of teachers working in the temporary category, especially from the backward communities, has to be either revised or upgraded so that they would find it benefitted. The teachers belonging to this category are now being paid only a meager sum of Rs 5,000," said N Rangarajan, the state general secretary of Tamil Nadu Elementary School Teachers' Federation.

Vacancies for the post of teachers at every level have been rising in the recent years and it has to be filled soon, said the secretary.