Junior college IT teachers boycott state government's aptitude test project

Maharashtra state government's ambitious project of conducting aptitude test for class X students of state board has met with another roadblock.

This time the controversy is around availability of teachers conducting the aptitude test. Information Technology (IT) teachers from Junior Colleges who were supposed to train school teachers and also extend additional support to schools to conduct the test in online format have decided to boycott the process. Because of their long-pending demands, the Junior College Teachers' Association has written to state education minister informing about their decision.

Secretary of Maharashtra State Junior College Teachers' Association, Prof. Anil Deshmukh, said, "Junior college teachers have been fighting for their demands for several years now. Every time, after agitations followed by meetings with ministers or other authorities we are just given assurances. But we are still waiting for their promises to be delivered. These IT teachers from junior colleges are heavily underpaid. Their payment issue has been discussed with government a number of times. Every time the government has accepted that it will resolve the issue but there is no solution till this date. We have no option but to not extend our support to state government's endeavor of conducting aptitude test for class X students of state board."