Jaipur- After the successful protests leading to the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, government teachers in Rajasthan have turned their ire towards the state Education Minister. The Rajasthan Shikshak Sangh (Siyaram) on Tuesday issued a strong warning that if no concrete action is taken on teachers’ long-pending demands, thousands of them will march to Delhi and submit a black paper to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, exposing alleged corruption in transfers, promotions, counselling and postings in the education department.

A joint meeting of the union’s patron board and standing committee was held at the organisation’s state office in Banswara under the guidance of chief patron and administrative president Siyaram Sharma and the chairmanship of state president Virendra Sharma. State general secretary Ramdayal Meena said the meeting began with a detailed discussion on the various problems faced by teachers. Speakers made it clear that if the ground-level problems in Rajasthan’s education department are not addressed, teachers will launch a march to Delhi.

The union extended its full moral support to the march, sit-in and demonstration being organised in Jaipur on August 5 by third-grade teachers demanding transfers and promotions. Speakers pointed out that third-grade teachers are the most hardworking employees in government schools. They are the only staff members taking 48 periods while also being overburdened with non-teaching duties such as surveys, SIR, BLO work, camps and MDM responsibilities. Despite this, no one in the state government is willing to listen to their grievances. Neither are they being transferred to preferred locations nor are they receiving promotions. The promotion process has remained stalled for the past six years. Teachers who joined service on the third pay scale are retiring from the same post, while the students they once taught have become their officers.

Speakers said that in-situ promotions have become a source of corruption. While the number of vice-principals and principals has increased three to five times, hundreds of schools in remote rural areas are still waiting for institutional heads. A court order requiring the reversion of all vice-principals and principals working on in-situ promotions since the 2016 session continues to hang over them. Even after spending Rs 180 crore, the system remains weak due to the inefficiency of officials and their arbitrary orders.

PEEO-principals have been reduced to multi-tasking officers trapped in paperwork. Almost every responsibility, from administrative orders to education department directives, has been placed on them. Apart from daily video conferences and meetings, they are loaded with census work, cattle enumeration, surveys, school safety audits, dropout tracking, Aadhaar and Jan Aadhaar authentication, bank account linking, workbooks, Palanhaar, Aapki Beti scheme, free textbooks, uniforms, cycles, transfer vouchers, scholarships and the Gargi scheme. Audits of these schemes are often conducted years later.

In the name of plantation drives, not even a single trolley is provided. While budget allocations are made to gram panchayats, the actual work is forced upon government schools. In tribal TSP areas, local donors are rarely available. Teachers have to buy saplings from forest department nurseries at Rs 10–15 each and then spend additional money on transport, loading, unloading, digging and tools. A teacher ends up spending around Rs 1,000 for 100 plants, while nearly Rs 150 is spent per student for 15 plants. The union demanded that the government supply free saplings and withdraw the impractical plantation orders issued to the education department. Although gram panchayats receive large budget allocations, sarpanches often release no funds and instead expect additional expenses on turbans, shawls, garlands and coconuts during functions.

Speakers stated that 1.50 lakh posts are vacant in the school education department. If posts of lecturers and senior teachers in newly upgraded schools are included as per staffing norms and enrolment growth, the figure rises to 2.19 lakh. The organisation has already staged demonstrations, submitted memorandums at sub-branch and district levels, organised ‘Sadhbuddhi Yagyas’ at district headquarters and held a large teachers’ rally in Ramganjmandi. Despite this, the Education Minister and the department have shown no positive response so far.

Convenor Umed Singh Dudi said that in protest against the Education Minister’s indifferent and authoritarian approach, the organisation will launch a Delhi march with thousands of teachers in the coming days. The meeting also fully supported the August 5 agitation in Jaipur organised by the Third Pay Scale Teachers’ Sangarsh Samiti. The recent order requiring PEEOs and other officials to stay overnight in villages four times a month was termed completely impractical and its withdrawal was demanded.

The meeting also discussed the membership drive, workers’ training programmes, tour schedules and organisational matters.