Teachers to agitate from Thursday

The Maharashtra State Federation of Junior College Teachers’ Organisation (MSFJCTO) has started their “go slow” agitation from Thursday, where they will assess only one HSC answer paper per day.

The union said that since the government has failed to fulfill their demands for the past six months, they have no other recourse. The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), which conducts HSC exams and was informed of the agitation by the union, on Thursday said that they have forwarded the demands to the state and requested it to resolve the issue at the earliest else it will delay declaration of results.

Anil Deshmukh, Secretary, MSFJCTO, said, “We are left with no option but to resort to this agitation as the government has taken us for granted. We had warned about this agitation long back but no one paid any heed and hence, our protest started from Thursday as soon as the first paper got over.”

The demands of junior college teachers include appointment of teachers to posts that have fallen vacant, making information technology and communication an aided subject, and providing salaries to teachers employed for the course.

Mr Deshmukh said, “We have informed the Mumbai division board officials about our agitation and have also told them that the agitation could spread all over the state. The officials have assured us of conveying our demands to the government.”

Asked about the same, Dattatray Jagtap, Chairman, Mumbai Division, MSBSHSE, said that they had received the memorandum of the teachers and had forwarded the same to the board’s head office in Pune. “We have requested the government to look into the issue on an urgent basis as the current agitation will result in assessment getting delayed. We are hopeful that the government will respond positively,” he said.