A large number of high schools across Bengal on Friday witnessed teachers participating in the strike demanding parity in dearness allowance with central government employees.
Sources said it is probably the first time since the change in guard in 2011, the state witnessed such spontaneous participation of teachers who usually did not turn up in good numbers during the earlier strikes.
A senior education department official posted in a south Bengal district said though we had sent “positive” reports of attendance, there were many schools where 80 per cent of the teachers did not turn up.
“I never witnessed such a response from the teachers to take part in a strike in my 15 years of career in the education department. Many schools were closed and there was a very thin attendance of teachers in many schools in our district. The impact of the strike was more in rural belts than urban pockets,” he said.
Anjangarh High School in Nadia’s Badkulla was closed on the day as none of the 37 teachers of the school and six non-teaching staff did not attend school on the day. Bhuban Mohini Girls’ High School in the same area recorded attendance of only five teachers. The scene was the same in schools in North 24-Parganas, Murshidabad, Birbhum, East and West Burdwan.
“The list of schools which were closed on Monday is long. The teachers turn up in significant numbers in support of the strike. There was poor attendance in at least 3,000 schools. The community turned up for parity of dearness allowance and poor human resources due to vacant posts in schools,” said Chandan Maiti, general secretary of the Advanced Society for Headmasters and Headmistresses.
Sources said a top official of the education department in Calcutta on Friday evening asked the district inspector of schools across Bengal to send attendance reports of teachers.
“A large number of heads of the institutions affiliated with our organisation did not send reports today. It was not possible for us as many teachers had reasons behind their absence,” Maiti added.
Sources said there were around 1.20 lakh teachers in over 5,000 high and higher secondary schools across Bengal and a large number did not turn up on Friday.
Several teachers and education department officials said there were many reasons behind the participation of teachers in a large number on Friday’s strike.
“The first reason is all teachers want the due dearness allowance. During the earlier strikes, teachers of Trinamul-run organisations used to ask the teachers to ensure their attendance on the day of the strike. This time they failed to convince the teachers as they privately agreed with the protesters that the demand was justified,” said a high school teacher in Murshidabad.
A section of teachers said in earlier strikes, one or two among them who participated in the strike, had to sacrifice one day’s salary only.
“Though the government threatened to break the service, it does not happen because of several legal issues. The government can only cut a day’s salary and we were ready to sacrifice it. Following the imparity in DA, we actually get a salary for 20 days in a month only,” said a teacher of a Birbhum high school.
The strike has been called by the joint forum of over 20 employees’ unions, which include the CPM-backed Coordination Committee. The unions had already carried out pen down agitations for two days before calling the strike.
The teachers said the joint forum has formed a WhatsApp group for teachers of each district and strengthened its campaign for the strike in the past one and half a month.
“The joint forum has already assured us to provide legal support if anyone faces punitive action. They can’t take action against thousands of employees who did not turn up,” said a teacher.
