Bhubaneswar, Sept. 13: Plus Two vocational education in several government junior colleges of the state has gone for a toss in the past week after teachers of these institutions launched an indefinite strike from September 5.

Teachers under the banner of All Orissa Plus Two Vocational Teachers Association sat on a dharna before the Directorate of Vocational Education here. They have been demanding proper designations and adequate infrastructure for the smooth running of these courses.

A total of 226 teachers teach 16 different vocational trades in 159 government junior colleges.

The vocational education programme, which is a centrally-sponsored programme, began in Orissa in 1988 after the state government approved 231 government vocational junior colleges. Of these, only 159 are now functional. The centrally-sponsored vocational programmes are taught at host colleges, which are either government, non-government, or government-aided colleges.

“The state of vocational education in Orissa is in tatters. Twenty-two years since its inception, we are yet to have separate infrastructure. Everything is at the mercy of the host colleges who refuse to understand the requirements of this course and handle it respectfully,” said Nibedita Panda, secretary of the association.

“We demand infrastructure development such as classrooms, laboratory and so on in each government vocational junior college on a priority basis,” she added.

Each government vocational junior college has been allotted two trades. At present, 16 trades are being taught in different vocational colleges in the state.

“Also, regularisation of vocational training teachers remains a distant dream,” said president of the association, Narayan Sathpathy. “We demand the immediate regularisation of services of all the full-time resource persons,” he added.

Sathpathy said the teachers had taken up this matter several times in the past with different authorities but without any result. “With no other way left, we decided to sit on an indefinite dharna. We won’t budge till our demands are heard.”

Vocational education is a stream just like science, arts and commerce running under the council of higher secondary education and it should be given similar importance, the teachers demanded.

“While the programme is running successfully in several states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Uttar Pradesh, it has remained dormant in Orissa just because of the indifferent attitude of the state government,” said Sathpathy.