In a major show of unity, thousands of teachers hold a massive dharna in the national capital under the banner of All India Joint Action Committee of Teachers’ Organisations
NEW DELHI – In a major show of unity, thousands of teachers from across the country on Thursday held a massive dharna at Jantar Mantar in the national capital under the banner of All India Joint Action Committee of Teachers’ Organisations (AIJACTO), demanding immediate government intervention on long-pending issues affecting school educators, including the controversial Supreme Court ruling on the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET).
The protest marked a historic moment in the teachers’ movement, as national-level unions in the school education sector came together for the first time on a single platform to launch a collective struggle. The dharna was presided over by a four-member presidium comprising CN Bharti (STFI), K Narasimha Reddy (AISTF), Baswaraj Gurikar (AIPTF) and CL Rose (AIFTO).
Several MPs and political leaders extended solidarity with the agitating teachers. CPI(M) floor leader in Rajya Sabha John Brittas, CPI MPs Selvaraj and V Sivadasan, Congress MP Kumar Naik and CPI(ML) leader Raja Ram Singh addressed the gathering and assured that teachers’ concerns would be raised in Parliament. CPI national leader K Narayana, Teacher MLCs Gopi Murthy (Andhra Pradesh) and Sripal Reddy (Telangana), Agricultural Workers Union general secretary B Venkat, along with leaders of various teachers’ and education organisations also spoke at the protest.
Addressing the rally, speakers described the formation of AIJACTO as a landmark development, underlining that the recent Supreme Court judgment on TET had unintentionally united teachers across states and organisational lines. While acknowledging the need for maintaining quality standards in education, they sharply criticised the ruling for what they termed its “harsh and unjust consequences” for in-service teachers.
The judgment mandates that in-service teachers of Classes I to VIII, with more than five years of service remaining, must clear TET within two years or face removal from service. Teachers with five or fewer years left before retirement are exempt from TET for continuation in service, but will be ineligible for promotions without the qualification.
The unions argued that the ruling runs contrary to the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) notification dated August 23, 2010, issued after the enforcement of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which made TET mandatory only for teachers appointed after that date and explicitly exempted all in-service teachers. For the past 15 years, state governments have followed this provision, and in-service teachers were never required to take TET. Protesters accused the NCTE of failing to properly place these facts before the Supreme Court, leading to what they called an adverse and avoidable verdict.
Teachers also flagged the “serious anomalies” in the judgment, including the arbitrary five-year service cut-off for exemption and the extreme penalty of job loss for failing TET within the stipulated two years, even if the shortfall is marginal. They demanded that the Union government take responsibility by amending the RTE Act and filing a review or curative petition in the Supreme Court to safeguard in-service teachers.
Beyond the TET issue, the dharna raised a wider set of demands, including restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and rejection of the recently announced Unified Pension Scheme (UPS); withdrawal of the “anti-public and commercialising” provisions of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020; an immediate halt to the closure and merger of schools—over one lakh of which have reportedly shut down in the past five years; voting rights for primary teachers in MLC elections; reduction of the income tax burden on salaried employees; and regularisation of temporary employees with assured minimum wages.
Warning of intensified agitation, AIJACTO leaders said that if the Centre fails to address these issues, the united platform would escalate the movement with stronger nationwide actions. Calling the formation of AIJACTO the “collective voice of teachers across India”, the committee appealed to educators, education workers and supporters to join and strengthen the united movement in the days ahead.
