Bhubaneswar, July 18: Teachers' organisations today staged demonstrations in the city over various demands.

About 200 teachers under the banner, All Odisha Federation of Teachers' Organisations, staged a sit-in outside the directorate of secondary education to protest against withdrawal of the revised career progression scheme from 656 aided high school and Sanskrit tolls.

Under the scheme, the teachers are eligible for various promotional and financial benefits. The teachers and employees rued that despite several appeals, the state government did not pay any heed to their demands.

The federation's general secretary Rabi Roy said the state government had granted benefits for the 656 aided high school in October 2015. "The teachers got the benefits for the next two months, but suddenly it stopped from this January. The directorate of secondary education withheld it on the pretext of conducting an audit," he said. The teachers asked why there was no similar audit for the 4,000 government schools where their colleagues were enjoying the benefits. "It has affected more than 7,000 teachers and employees," said Roy.

A teachers' delegation also met the school and mass education department secretary Ranjana Chopra,who assured them of sorting out the issue by July 27. "We have asked the teachers to join work. We will try to find out a solution to the issue as soon as possible," said a department official.

In another incident, another group of teachers today gheroaed the Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority office to protest against the decision to disengage siksha sahayaks, who have failed to submit their Odisha Teachers Eligibility Test pass certificates by March 31, 2013.

The entrance is held for recruitment of teachers to primary and upper primary schools in the state. Around 3,760 siksha sahayaks, a category of primary schoolteachers, had been appointed in 1,042 schools in 2012. They were asked to deposit their pass certificates to the district authorities by March 2013. But, around 800 are yet to do it.

The Odisha Secondary School Teachers' Association, too, threatened to launch a protest if the posts of headmaster are not filled up soon. Out of the 5,000 high schools, 1,900 are running without headmasters. This has led to poor management of the schools, alleged the teachers. The association alleged that the government had neither been recruiting for the vacant headmasters' posts nor is it giving promotion to the eligible teachers.

"The teachers, who are given charges of headmasters are under tremendous pressure of managing both classes and administration, leading to mismanagement," said the association's general secretary Prakash ChandraMohanty.