Date:08/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/08/stories/2009010859530600.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Higher secondary teachers seek Central pay scale

Special Correspondent

MADURAI: Headmasters and postgraduate teachers of higher secondary schools staged a demonstration here on Wednesday demanding that the State Government should keep their salary on a par with pay scale of Central Government.

They placed 10 demands before the Government during the demonstration held under the auspices of Joint Action Committee of PG Teachers and Higher Secondary School Headmasters’ Associations.

Talking to reporters, S. Pounraj, convener of the Joint Action Committee, said that their other important demands are establishing a separate Directorate for Higher Education and to amend the G.O.No.720 which dealt with promotions of teachers of higher secondary schools.

He also said that both the associations have been repeatedly demanding that the remuneration given for paper valuation for public examinations should be increased. Another demand made by the Joint Action Committee was to stop direct appointment of District Educational Officers and to appoint only teachers with five years of teaching experience as DEOs.

The PG teachers and headmasters also made an appeal to the State Government to designate the headmasters as Principals.

M. Masanam, State vice-president, Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary School Headmasters Association, said that the next course of action would be to resort to hunger strike if the demands were not met by the State Government.