Teaching job candidates protest, 300 held in Gujarat

GANDHINAGAR: Hundreds of candidates who had cleared the state education department’s Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and Teacher Aptitude Test (TAT) on Tuesday morning marched to the secretariat. The rally was stopped by district police teams and around 300 protestors were detained, allegedly by use of force. It was the first demonstration the state govt faced after winning the Lok Sabha polls.Gandhinagar police also detained Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani who participated in the protest.
Some aspirants who were part of the protest told the media that one of their key demands was that govt scrap the gyan sahayak (teaching assistant) scheme. “There are qualified candidates who have cleared TET/TAT. But instead of regular appointments that can provide these teachers the chance to get govt benefits, the contractual system deprives them of any career progress,” said a participant. Another protesting aspirant said that there are about 40,000 vacancies for schoolteachers, against which the state has about 70,000 candidates who have cleared TET/TAT exams. Even then the recruitment of teachers has been delayed by years,” they added.
TET is mandatory to teach in Classes 1 to 8, whereas those teaching Classes 9 to 12 must have cleared TAT.
Before his detention, Mevani told the media that qualified teachers are not getting jobs in the state. “It is a major societal problem which BJP is not addressing. I will scale up protests until qualified candidates get justice,” he said.
State govt sources said, “Without regular examination process, it is not possible to give jobs to the TET/TAT qualified candidates. A policy will soon be announced for the same.”
Protestors detained and taken to different police stations were released in the evening, said state police officials. The protest started near Pathikashram with the candidates then taking out a rally towards Sachivalaya to put forth their demands. Police teams intercepted the rally and detained protesters.
Ravi Teja Vasamsetty, SP, Gandhinagar district, said around 300 protesters were detained as they did not have permission to sit on protest. “Those protesters gathered after exchanging calls and messages on different WhatsApp groups,” said Vasamsetty. “Noone suffered injuries despite videos showing that cops manhandled protesters.”