Chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the state-level teachers’ award ceremony on Monday in Bhubaneswar. Picture Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 5: Around 63 teachers were given state award for 2007-08 today by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, while protesting block grant teachers chose to observe Teachers’ Day as a black day, demanding grants-in-aid.

Awards in the form of citations, shawls and cheques worth Rs 10,000 each were doled out to 30 primary school teachers and 33 secondary school teachers. On the other hand, around 24,000 teachers and employees of 1,983 block grant schools put on black badges, held protest rallies and shouted slogans in front of the district collectors’ offices.

The teachers have been on an indefinite strike since August 1, demanding abolition of block grant and implementation of the grants-in-aid system.

“The school and mass education department has set up around 47 squads to visit block grant schools across the state and verify whether they meet the grants-in-aid criteria,” said school and mass education department secretary, Aparajita Sarangi.

“These squads have already begun visiting schools to find out whether they will meet the grants-in-aid criteria, especially in terms of infrastructure requirements. They will submit a report, based on which a decision will be taken,” said Sarangi on the sidelines of the award function.

“The chief secretary is heading a committee to look into the matters of the block grant teachers. Hopefully, a decision will be taken shortly,” Naveen said.

At least 20,000 elementary and 3,500 secondary teachers will be appointed this year, the chief minister announced at the event.

Similarly, 1.5 lakh in-service teachers in elementary schools and 40,000 teachers in secondary schools will be given training, he said.

“It will be ensured that the student-teacher ratio is adequate and that regular headmasters are appointed,” said Naveen.

“Squads, high-level meetings and task force are terms commonly used in the department for the last two years, but to no effect. This time also, these terms are being used to mislead the public and teachers. “We do not trust the department any more and will continue our stir till our demands are met,” said Prashant Mohapatra, general secretary of the Orissa Block Grant Secondary School Teachers and Employees Association.

Students of most block grant schools were deprived of celebrating the Teachers’ Day this time. However, in some places, students visited the residences of the teachers.

“It is very unfortunate that because of government apathy, we have been forced to observe September 5 as black day. Though we had no celebrations at school, students visited our homes to offer their regards and receive our blessings,” said Rudra Charan Lenka, a teacher.

The teachers association is planning to gherao 314 block offices across the state on September 8.