Fill teachers’ positions in tribal welfare schools: Anbumani Ramadoss

PMK president urges State government to fill 438 teachers' positions in Tribal Welfare schools to prevent educational disruption.

PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Monday said the State government should fill 438 teachers’ positions in schools operating under the Department of Tribal Welfare across the State and allow 300 teachers working temporarily to continue working until appointments are completed.

In a statement, he said the Department of Tribal Welfare oversees 320 schools, including 212 primary schools, 49 middle schools, 31 high schools, and 28 higher secondary schools and approximately 30,000 students are studying in these schools.

“For many years, 210 middle school teachers’ positions, 179 graduate teachers’ positions, and 49 senior graduate teachers’ positions have remained unfilled. To ensure that students’ education was not affected, 300 temporary teachers were appointed, and they have been working for the past six years. The recent dismissal of these teachers a few weeks ago has caused a significant problem,” he said.

Dr. Anbumani said the Department of Tribal Welfare should have taken steps to appoint permanent teachers or alternative temporary teachers before dismissing the temporary teachers.

“There is no greater social injustice than denying education to tribal students who are at the bottom of the social hierarchy. It is condemnable that the government is retaliating against the teacher association executives who pointed out this issue. Is this the social justice of the DMK government?” he asked, adding the show cause notices issued to the executives of the teacher associations should be withdrawn.