Baripada: Students of North Orissa University at Takatpur in Mayurbhanj district pursuing integrated BEd and MEd took out a protest march Tuesday alleging they are ineligible to sit OTET, OSSTET and CTET meant for teachers due to technical reasons.
However, as per official guidelines, graduates with 50% marks and 1 year B.Ed or graduates with 45% marks and 1 year B.Ed) in accordance with the NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) are eligible to sit OTET.
The students have been demanding eligibility to sit the teacher eligibility test and had taken up the issue with university authorities, district administration and Higher Education department, but no step was taken to resolve the issue at the university level.
A group of 120 students led by Duryodhan Behera, Bhachhahari Mishra, Rahul Nandi, Dibyasingh Behera, Ujjwal Nayak, Priyaranjan Behera, Himansu Tarei, Sujendu Das and Sangram Keshari Panda took up padayatra in protest against the official apathy.
Student leader Duryadhan Behera said, “We have been urging the authorities of university, higher education department, higher education minister, Union minister Pratap Sarangi and Dharmendra Pradhan about our problem, but there is no remedy.”
As the padayatra reached the MPC Autonomous College, Baripada sub-collector Dibyajyoti Parida, SP Parmar Smit Purusottamdas stopped the students midway and tried to placate them.
However, the students remained adamant on their demand and went ahead with their march. The sub-collector and the SP later intercepted them near the Law College.
Later, Collector Vineet Bhardwaj issued a written promise (2018, 54/19) to sort out the problems of the students within three days.
The Collector is reported to have informed the higher education department about the problems of the students.
Meanwhile, the students’ leaders warned of agitation if the issue is not sorted out in three days.
Notably, girl students of tribal community last week were upset over lack of basic facilities at their 100-bed hostel at North Orissa University. They demanded repair of the hostel at the earliest and warned of agitation against ITDA and university authorities.