Teachers' service may come under ESMA Act

Upset with the boycott of evaluation of answer scripts by government teachers, the Education Department is contemplating bringing services of teachers under the ambit of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).

If implemented, teachers, like government doctors, can’t strike work. At least, this is what the rule book says.

Speaking to reporters in Bangalore on Tuesday, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Visveswara Hedge Kageri said the frequent agitation by teachers during evaluation threatened the careers of students, besides creating fear among the parents. Hence, the government is planning to make services of teachers compulsory.

He said the teachers should not agitate during the evaluation. “Their demand to address the disparity in the salary is not wrong, but the timing to air their grievances is not right,” he said.

The minister said the department officials would conduct a study in the neighbouring states to find how situations like teachers’ strike are handled. The State is inclined to make education an essential service during the next year. He said the decision will be taken after a discussion with officials and teachers representatives. The meeting will be held soon after the evaluation work of SSLC papers is completed.

Asked what his department would do if the teachers who are assigned to evaluate SSLC answer papers go on strike, he said the teachers of SSLC, Primary and High School too have similar demands, but they have been asked not to take any such steps against the interests of parents and students.

“The committee headed by Principal Secretary, Department of Education to study the disparity of salary will look into disparity of salary of highschool, Higher and Primary School teachers, headmasters and principals of schools and colleges and submit a report,” he said. He said the Committee has been given time for  one month to submit the report.

Results on time

Kageri said the results of PU exams would be announced as per the schedule and also hoped that the SSLC evaluation would be completed without any interruption.
On malpractice by students and teachers in some of the exam centres, he said stringent action would be taken against all those responsible.