Teachers must prepare for struggle ahead

A two-day education convention of the Rajasthan Shikshak Sangh (Pragatisheel) was held in Jaipur on the campus of Shree Gaud Higher Secondary School on 17-18 January 2009. Thousands of teachers from far flung districts of Rajasthan participated in the proceedings of the convention.

Participants at the convention pointed out that the existing capitalist system is responsible for the falling level of education. Stating that the there is acute shortage of staff and infrastructure for education they said that the teachers are called upon to carry out various other tasks like polio campaign, population census, cattle census, elections and cooking meals for mid-day meal scheme. The government is blocking the efforts towards universalisation of education by giving the excuse that there are not enough resources and encouraging privatization of education.

The General Secretary of the Sangh Babulal Jain demanded that the government should address the problems of the teachers without any further delay, otherwise the teachers will be forced to wage stern struggle against the government.

Concluding the deliberations, the President of the Sangh, Shri.Hanuman Prasad Sharma, said that the present capitalist system is at the root of problems faced by the teachers. Any voice of revolt against this cruel system is suppressed by branding it as terrorist or naxalite-inspired. The rulers of this country try to hide their own weakness by dividing the people on the basis of caste, religion and region, following the colonial model of “divide and rule”. The recent attempts by the rulers of India and Pakistan to start a war goes against the interest of workers and peasants of both the countries. We must come forward against such designs of our rulers.

He voiced the demands of the teachers that the state government must apply the First Pay Commission recommendation to the teachers with retrospective effect from 1 January 2006, approve annual budget for the teachers working under panchayati raj, promote the para-teachers to the post of regular teachers, provide respectable honorarium to the Vidyarthi Mitra for the entire session, enact proper transfer policy, provide opportunities to women-teachers for promotions, allocate 40% of the total state GDP to education, fill-up the vacancies in all categories, recognize Rajasthani language as the state language, and provide pension and other benefits to the newly appointed teachers. He appealed to the teachers to be ready to wage struggle to gain these just demands.

The convention was inaugurated by the MLA from Badi Sadadi and was chaired by former minister and MLA from Salumber, Raghuvir Singh Meena. Other dignitaries included MLA Pratap Singh Khacriyawas and Gangaben Gharasiya. Representatives from Sanvita Vidyarthi Mitra Sangh, Saksharta Prerak Sangh, Pustakalaya Adhyaksha Sangh, Rajasthan Prabodhak Sangh, Kisan Union and educationists from various political streams were also present.