Bhubaneswar: Thousands of contractual high school teachers staged a demonstration at lower PMG square in Bhubaneswar over the regularisation of their jobs.
As many as 18,000 high school contractual teachers joined the protest, a source said.
One of the agitating teachers said that last year October 15, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced the abolishment of contractual services. However, the School and Mass Education Department has not implemented the same for the 2016-22 batches, the teacher added.
Another protesting teacher said if their demands are not fulfilled within 24 hours, then they will launch an indefinite strike.
Responding to the protest, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash informed that a high-level meeting is underway at the Chief Secretary level. He urged the agitating teachers to have patience till the final decision is taken.
Earlier, hundreds of contractual high school teachers had staged a protest at Lower PMG December 7, 2022. They had demanded the regularisation of services of ‘initial appointees’, a term used to refer to contractual employees, working in different state government high schools from 2016 to 2022.
PNN