Maharashtra junior college teachers to protest for old pension scheme, offline Class 11 admissions

NEW DELHI: Junior college teachers in Maharashtra will hold a hunger strike and statewide protest on March 6 and March 12 for long pending demands including the reinstatement of the old pension scheme, increase in grant scale at partially aided schools and implementation of the assured promotion scheme after every 10 years.

The protest will take place at all the Tehsildar offices, district collector offices, the education commissioner’s office in Pune, and in front of the state legislature in Mumbai. The decision to hold the protest was taken at a recent meeting of the executive committee of the Maharashtra State Junior College Teachers’ Federation.

The teachers’ body has been boycotting the evaluation of the Class 12 answer sheets for the last two years. As a result, the issues concerning infrastructure teachers were largely addressed, and the grant-in-aid for stage-wise teachers was announced. However, the following demands remain unmet:

• Inclusion of IT subject teachers in the pay scale by integrating them into the grant-in-aid scheme.
• Implementation of the 10-20-30 year service-based assured scheme for teachers.
• Applicability of the old pension scheme to teachers who were employed before November 1, 2005, including part-time, partially aided, and non-aided teachers.
• Universal application of the old pension scheme to all teachers.

Despite education minister Dadasaheb Bhuse announcing a collective meeting with all unions and personally assuring a separate meeting for junior college teachers’ issues, no meeting has been scheduled yet, the teachers group complained and expressed widespread dissatisfaction.

Maharashtra Class 11 admissions

Additionally, the federation believes that the state government’s decision to conduct the Class 11 admission process online is expected to cause educational losses for students. In the offline admission process, the procedure was completed in June, and classes started in July. However, the online process will likely extend the session until August or September, resulting in a delay of nearly two months in students’ education.

Raising concern for the students of rural areas, the teachers have urged the government to withdraw the decision. “In rural areas, where there is no significant competition for admissions, this process will likely divert students to state-run schools, thus saving the government’s expenditure on aided schools. The federation demands that the government immediately cancel this decision,” the federation said.

The federation also asserted that teachers should not be assigned work like “squad duty” during exams, and that the government should not be forcing teachers to protest.

Demands of junior college teachers

The Junior College Teachers Federation has made the following demands:

• The old pension scheme should be implemented for teachers appointed after November 1, 2005.
• Teachers in partially aided schools in the state should be given stage-wise increments as per the prevailing policy, and they should be allowed to contribute to GPF/NPS.
• A government resolution regarding the integration of recognized IT teachers should be issued.
• A 10-20-30 years assured career progression plan, similar to government employees, should be immediately implemented for teachers. The 20% eligibility criteria for selection grades should be removed.
• All vacant teaching positions should be filled without delay.
• Teachers who were transferred from non-aided to aided schools should be given transfer approval by the Deputy Director without requiring proposals from the Ministry, as was previously done.
• Pending files related to additional posts that have been rectified should be sent to the Ministry immediately for approval, and orders for their integration should be issued promptly.
• Currently, for the approval of junior college batches, 21 students should be considered for school-affiliated junior colleges, and 31 students for senior college-affiliated junior colleges.
• Teachers with M.Phil., M.Ed., and Ph.D. qualifications in junior colleges should be given a salary increase similar to higher education teachers, and the retirement age should be set at 60, as per the central government norms.
• The benefit of the grant increase should be given from the date of the 7th Pay Commission’s benefits instead of from September 1, 2024.
• Teachers covered under the DCPS/NPS schemes should be given a calculation and the due amount. Any deducted amount from March 2021 onwards that has not been deposited into teachers’ accounts should be credited with interest immediately. Additionally, the outstanding dues of the Pay Commission, as per government order dated 23/2/21, should be cleared without delay.
• Junior college teachers' additional workload should only be declared extra if it is continuously reduced to zero for three years.
• Part-time clock-hour teachers in non-government junior colleges should be paid remuneration equivalent to that of government junior college teachers.
• Junior College Vice-Principals should be granted a promotion-related salary increase.
• When part-time teachers are converted to full-time status, the period of their part-time service should be considered for salary increases and other benefits.
• The deduction period for pension contribution should be reduced from 15 years to 12 years.
• Teachers appointed after November 1, 2005, in municipal or city municipal corporations (NPA, MPA teachers) should immediately be included under the DCPS/NPS scheme.
• In the government order dated September 20, 2024, the requirement for a non-criminal certificate for scholarships should be removed. Income certificates should not be asked for, and the necessary change should be made online for the benefit of students.