Tamil Nadu school teachers to protest over pay scales

Around 25,000 elementary school teachers in Tamil Nadu have decided to protest from Sep 25 to press their demands, including parity with the central government teachers in pay scales and increased health insurance limits, said a teachers federation official.

Speaking to reporters here Monday, N. Rengarajan, the general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Elementary School Teachers Federation said: "Over 25,000 teachers from 32 districts would participate in the relay protest to be held in front of the state guest house in Chennai. On each day, around 4,500 teachers would participate in the protest."

The anomalies in the pay scale of secondary grade teachers should be corrected and parity should be achieved with the central government teachers, he said.

Rengarajan said the government should revert back to the old pension scheme as under the new scheme it was not known how much pension one would get per month after retirement and what would be the pension status if a teacher dies during service.

He added that the Tamil Nadu government should also increase the health care insurance limit to Rs.1.2 million.