TET qualified candidates in Tripura, who have been waiting for a year to get recruited as teachers, accused the government of ignoring their plight and demanded an answer from the chief minister Dr Manik Saha.
The job seekers staged a protest outside the chief minister’s residence near Ganaraj Chowmuhani area in Agartala on Tuesday, hoping to get a clear statement from him about the recruitment process of the TET exam passers.
The protesters said, “We have cleared the exams but we are still unemployed for more than a year. The ministers used to complain about the lack of enough qualified candidates. But now, we have the qualifications and we are still jobless”.
They added, “Building new infrastructure and inaugurating new facilities for students are not enough. We think that the teachers are the most important part of the education system and the people of Tripura know how much the state government schools need more teachers”.
They also pointed out the problems faced by the students due to the shortage of teachers. “Many schools have retired teachers or no subject teachers at all. Students are taking to the streets to voice their grievances. The education system of Tripura will collapse if teachers are not hired soon”, one of them said.
They urged the state government, under the guidance of the chief minister who is also in charge of the education department, to conduct a special recruitment drive for the TET-qualified unemployed youths to solve the issue of ‘teacher shortage’ in state government schools.
The protesters said that they had been trying to meet the chief minister for a long time, but they were not given any appointment. “Whenever we come here, we are either chased away or arrested by the police and security personnel as if we are criminals. There are so many crimes happening in the state every day, but the law and order situation is questionable”, they alleged.
The police and security personnel on duty dispersed the crowd peacefully after a while.