TETO-JAC sticks to Sept 10 protest, seeks govt assurance on all 31 demands

CHENNAI: The members of the Tamil Nadu Elementary Teachers Organisations-Joint Action Committee (TETO-JAC) have announced to conduct a State-wide protest on Sept 10 in respective districts and a three-day protest on Sept 29, 30 and October 1 in Chennai, even though some of their demands have been met.

The committee has placed 31 long-pending demands to the government, of which as many as nine were addressed by the school education department.

However, the members of TETO-JAC have announced protests this week and in September last week to ensure that all of their demands are met.

Speaking to DT Next, a senior member of the committee said, "We are pleased and thank the government for having paid heed to a few of our demands. However, we request the government to immediately issue a circular as a confirmation that these actions will be taken at the earliest."

The member further went on to say that the government should also quickly respond and resolve the remaining key demands that affect several teachers.

Some of the demands placed by the TETO-JAC members are to revoke the new pension scheme and implement the old pension scheme. The teachers’ union also demands anomalies in the salaries of Secondary Grade Teachers (SGTs) to be resolved. Apart from the reinstatement of the surrender of leaves, they want the Ennum Ezhuthum scheme to be scrapped.

Meanwhile, the government agreed to some of the demands such as employing 6,000 administrators cum instructors to engage in data updation works on the Education Management Information Center (EMIS) portal, conducting School Management Committee (SMC) meetings as per the needs and revoking the cases filed against teachers who had protested in 2016, 2017 and 2019 in the Joint Action Council of Teachers' Organisations-Government Employees' Organisations (Jacto-Geo) agitation across the State.