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 government faced after the Lok Sabha polls. Gandhinagar police also detained Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani who participated in the protest.
The protesters were detained as they did not have permission to sit on protest. They gathered after exchanging calls and messages on different WhatsApp groups, police sources said. No one suffered injuries despite videos showing the cops manhandling protesters, they added.
One of the key demands of the protesters is reportedly that the government scrap the ‘gyan sahayak’ (teaching assistant) scheme. “There are qualified candidates who have cleared TET/TAT. But instead of regular appointments with government benefits, the contractual system deprives them of career progress,” said a participant in the protest.
Delay in recruitment
There are about 40,000 vacancies for school teachers, 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, the protesters said.
TET is mandatory to teach in classes 1 to 8, whereas those teaching classes 9 to 12 must clear 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.
According to state government sources, without regular examination process, it is not possible to give jobs to the TET/TAT qualified candidates. A policy will soon be announced in this regard, they added.
The detained protestors 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.
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