Academic activities came to a standstill in all government-run primary and upper primary schools across Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday following the three-day agitation launched by contractual teachers working under the Sarba Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
The protest was launched under aegis of the All Arunachal SSA Teachers Association (AASSATA) demanding batch wise regularization over the years.
Reportedly, 694 teachers including 502 primary teachers and 172 trained graduate teachers of the 2003 batch have been regularized so far.
However, hundreds of others from the same batch are awaiting regularization.
The SSA teachers are engaged in over 2,030 primary schools and 1,003 upper primary schools across the State.
The total number of teachers working under the SSA is nearly 6,850.
On Wednesday around 4,000 teachers joined the peaceful dharna to press for their demand.
The AASSATA lamented that though the committee headed by the State Education Secretary had submitted the framework and modalities for regularization of SSA teachers after it were clearly mentioned in the Budget Speech-2018, the State Government is still not giving importance to the issue.
The AASSATA also held the State Government responsible for letting the situation spill over.
The AASSATA representatives had earlier called on State Education Minister Hunchun Ngandam on August 5 last apprising him of their deplorable plight.
It was learnt that the minister had made an appeal to the teachers to call off the protest on Wednesday. However, the teachers went ahead with their agitation.
The AASSATA also stated that the State Government should maintain a unified teaching cadre.