Teachers in Odisha today threatened to boycott evaluation of matriculation (class 10) examination answer sheets alleging government apathy, even as the state government urged them to cooperate in the larger interest of the students.
Teachers under the banner of All Odisha School College Teachers and Employees United Forum staged dharna outside evaluation centres including Capital High School here accusing the state government of being apathetic towards them.
The agitating teachers alleged there was inordinate delay in publishing a notification on withdrawal of compulsory affidavit clause to avail grant-in-aid (GIA).
The forum also urged all teachers to skip the evaluation process slated to begin tomorrow.
General Secretary of Odisha Secondary School Teachers Association (OSSTA), Prakash Mohanty said the teachers had earlier put their stir on hold after the state government promised to look into their demands and grievances by March.
"However, no step has been taken by the government so far. Therefore, we have started agitation and have decided not to participate in matric answer paper evaluation process," said Mohanty.
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School and Mass Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra requested the teachers to withdraw their agitation and claimed that the government is ready with a contingency plan if the teaches stick to their stand.
"We appeal to the teachers to cooperate in the matric answer paper evaluation process in the larger interest of the students. However, we are also ready with a contingency plan to deal with any situation," Patra said.
Meanwhile, the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) asserted that the evaluation of Matriculation examination answer papers will begin as scheduled from tomorrow.
"Notwithstanding the ongoing strike by some teachers, the evaluation of papers shall begin tomorrow," BSE examination controller Dr Nihar Ranjan Mohanty said in Cuttack.
He said the BSE had requisitioned the service of 13,200 teachers to evaluate the papers at 56 evaluation centers. Like every year, the BSE also has prepared a list of reserve teachers, taking them from other recognised schools for any exigencies.
"Since only about 4,000 teachers of our requisitioned teachers are on strike, we will replace them from our reserve list to join the exercise of evaluation at a short notice", Dr Mohanty said adding their reserved list has more teachers than the requisitioned list.
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