Bhubaneswar, Sept. 14: BEd and Certificate in Teaching (CT) candidates today protested against the state government's "teacher on call" initiative to engage retired staff members even as thousands of qualified youths remain unemployed.

Demanding fresh recruitments against vacant posts, the candidates said it was strange on the part of the state government to have opted for retired teachers when there were more than 60,000 trained BEd and CT candidates in the state waiting for jobs.

"While 13,000 posts are still lying vacant in the high schools, around 36,000 are vacant in the elementary schools across the state," said the president of Trained Unemployed CT and BEd Degree Holders' Association, Satya Bhusan Tarai.

The candidates have threatened to go on a strike in front of the Assembly on September 22 if the state government did not bring in any notification in this regard by September 20, the association members said.

The Block Grant Teachers' and Employees' Association has also announced a demonstration in front of the Assembly on September 22 protesting the governmentdecision.

"The decision is an insult to the entire teacher community and has been launched with an intention to paralyse the education system. The intention of the government is to avoid regular employment in this department," said secretary of the association Prasanta Mohapatra.

The association, comprising 4,000 teachers of block grant schools across the state, also threatened to boycott the panchayat polls scheduled next year.