Chandigarh, January 23 – The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has demanded that the Captain Amarinder Singh Government should immediately start the process of filling in more than 27,000 vacant posts of teachers in various government schools in the state so that the poor, ‘dalits’ and others belonging to under-privileged category were not deprived of quality education.
In a statement issued from party headquarters on Thursday, party’s state core committee chairman and legislator Principal Budh Ram and Deputy Leader of Opposition, Bibi Sarabjit Kaur Manuke said that a large number of ETT, B.Ed and TET qualified teachers estimated at more than 70 thousand were jobless in Punjab.
They said the unemployed teachers in the state had been protesting on the roads for jobs since the dark days of the previous Badal government, saying that more than 27 thousand posts of ETT and B.Ed teachers were lying vacant in various government schools in Punjab, which was a well thought-out design to depriving a large number of students from humble backgrounds access to quality education.
Principal Budh Ram said that the Captain Government ‘grabbed’ power on the ‘false’ promises of giving jobs in every household, which it had failed to keep even as three years have rolled by. He said that by announcing recruitment of 500 vacant posts of ETT teachers as against more than 12,000 posts lying vacant, which was a cruel joke on the teachers. Similar treatment was being meted out to B.Ed and TET qualified teachers who were staging relentless protest for over months now.
Bibi Sarbjit Kaur Manuke said that while on the one hand the Captain Government was not recruiting adequate teaching staff and providing infrastructure, on the other by announcing recruitment of small number of vacancies, which was a cruel joke on the thousands of qualified teachers in the state fighting for their legitimate right, saying it was a political gimmick of the government to create a wedge between the community waging a relentless battle for their rights.
The AAP leaders demanded that the existing age-limit of 37 years for government jobs, including those of teachers and others, be raised to 42 years.
