Agitating TET qualified teacher aspirants block house of Tripura’s Education Minister, arrested

Hundreds of angry Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualified teacher’s aspirants on Saturday, August 20, gathered before the residence of Tripura’s Education Minister Ratanlal Nath in Agartala and demonstrated a protest demanding for recruitment of all TET qualified candidates across the state.  

The protestors raised slogans against the state government including the Education Minister in support of their demand for recruitment of all 3631 TET-qualified candidates so as to fill up a large number of teachers' posts lying vacant for several years in schools across the state.

They agitating teachers added, "Since the dismissal of 10,323 teachers as per the order of the Supreme Court, majority of the schools are running with a huge crisis of teachers and many are even running with a single teacher, teaching students of separate classes simultaneously, which in turn is affecting the quality of education."

The protestors said that recently they came to know that the state government has decided to appoint only 576 out of the total 3631 TET qualified, and so they are protesting against this decision because if it is implemented then many among them who soon will be over age, shall no more be able to apply for any other government job.

Meantime, several Congress leaders including Tripura PCC president Birajit Sinha, MLA Sudip Roy Barman, and others reached the spot and spoke with the agitators and supported their demands, viewing that the state government should not compromise with the health and education department as both are most vital.

MLA Roy Barman arranged a meeting of a five-member delegation of the protestors with the Education Minister and said that the government should recruit all of them so that the quality of education for students who are the future of the nation is not compromised.

The agitators after some scuffle with security forces were arrested and taken away in police vehicles as they did not procure any permission for organizing the protest.

Similar protests and roadblocks were also organized in front of the Agartala City Center today as a large number of youths under the banner of Unemployed Youth Forum on demand of publishing the results of the Joint Recruitment Board of Tripura (JRBT) examination held in the year 2021.

Later the agitaors were also arrested by the police and taken away from the protesting ground.