The members of the Joint Action Committee of Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Associations (JACTTO) staged a one day strike near Red Cross on Thursday demanding the revision of the new pension scheme and 14 other demands.

V.M.Michael Raj, State Information and Communication Secretary of Tamil Nadu Post Graduate Teachers’ Association and member of JACTTO said that the state government should revise the pay scale for grade two teachers in par with the central government’s pay scale. “While the central government has fixed 17000 rupees as a basic pay scale for 2nd grade teachers, the state government is paying only 9300 rupees,” he said.

He added that the state teachers lose upto 11700 rupees per month when compared with the central government teachers. “The pension scheme should also be revised and the government should stick with the 2003 pension scheme that pays 50 percent to the teachers,” he stated.

The protesters also demanded that the left out years of the 2nd grade teachers should be added to their service years so as to help the teachers get promoted to the 1st grade. “The teachers who were appointed in the year 2004-2006 are considered as working only from 2006 after the consolidated pay scheme was introduced in 2006. If they are considered working from 2004, they can gain two years into their experience on paper,” Michael said.

They associations also demanded that Tamil subject which is currently last in the list of subjects according to the Government Order 266, should be brought to the first. The government should encourage Tamil as medium of instruction. “The students can learn and excel in science only if they learn it in the mother language,” one of the protesters said.

They stated that the government should enforce a special law for their safety as teachers are easily targeted by anti-social elements.