Tamil Nadu primary teachers warn of November protests over pay, promotions and TET

The Tamil Nadu Primary School Teachers' Federation has announced that it will launch continuous statewide protests in November if the State government does not immediately address its long-pending charter of demands. The federation said several resolutions to this effect were adopted at its State executive committee meeting held on Sunday.

A central demand concerns salary anomalies affecting secondary-grade teachers. According to the federation, educators placed at serial number 45 under Level 12 of the pay matrix have been denied annual increments for two years. The union has urged the government to extend the matrix scale up to serial number 50 so that these teachers receive the increments due to them.

Speaking on the decisions taken at the meeting, State general secretary S. Mayil said the association strongly condemned the School Education Department's decision to appeal court judgments that had gone in favour of retired headmasters on selection-grade and special-grade scale pay. The federation said the continuing litigation has left more than 2,000 retired teachers without the pensionary benefits they are entitled to.

The union also flagged unresolved disputes over higher education incentive pay and delays in implementing comprehensive retirement benefits. On recruitment, it demanded that the passing marks in the upcoming Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) be lowered and that weightage be given to teaching experience. The TET is a qualifying examination for appointment to teaching posts in the State.

Teachers further pushed back against what they described as growing non-academic burdens. The federation demanded that educators be relieved of duties linked to the expanded student breakfast scheme, a State welfare programme that provides free breakfast to schoolchildren, arguing that these tasks cut into classroom teaching hours.

The union called for the immediate cancellation of Government Order 243, which it argued severely restricts promotion avenues, particularly for women teachers. It also sought a thorough anti-corruption probe into alleged irregularities and bribe-seeking practices within the State audit department.

The federation rejected the government's proposal to form another investigative committee, describing it as a delaying tactic. Its leaders warned that unless swift executive action is taken to resolve these livelihood issues and pending legal challenges against teachers are withdrawn, classrooms across Tamil Nadu will witness widespread protests from November.

The demands bring together long-running grievances over pay scales, promotion avenues and retirement benefits with newer concerns about administrative workload on primary school teachers. The federation has not specified the form the November protests will take or how long they would continue.