After statewide protests, teachers gear up for Parliament march

Hyderabad: Teachers across Telangana staged statewide protests on Friday under the banner of the All India Joint Action Committee of Teachers’ Organisations (AIJACTO), demanding immediate redressal of key issues affecting the teaching community.

Wearing black badges, teachers in government schools participated in demonstrations during school hours, highlighting their dissatisfaction with current policies. The protests were part of a nationwide struggle call given jointly by national teachers’ federations, with unions such as USPC, JACTO, SGTU and others extending their support.

The demands raised include exemption from the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) for in-service teachers, intervention by the Central Government and NCTE to safeguard senior teachers’ jobs, scrapping of the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and restoring the old pension system, halting the closure and merger of schools, and reviewing the National

Education Policy (NEP) to repeal provisions deemed harmful to government education. Teachers also pressed for voting rights for primary teachers in MLC elections, and insisted on equal pay for equal work.