As Prayagraj Turns Into a Protest Hotspot, Students Plan Fresh Agitation on Prime Minister Modi’s Birthday
New Delhi: A group of students in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district protesting against chief minister Adityanath’s decision of going ahead with the recruitment for 11,508 vacancies at primary schools is planning to kickstart a fresh agitation on September 17, which happens to be the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a bid to celebrate it as a ‘National Unemployment Day.’
Videos of the protest from Prayagraj had recently gone viral on September 10, when male and female personnel of Uttar Pradesh police were seen trying to remove protesters forcefully from the protest site. Students had been gathering since the last few weeks at Pathar Girja in Prayagraj’s Civil Lines area as part of an agitation seeking formal announcement of 60,000 teaching vacancies in schools across Uttar Pradesh. In some videos posted on social media, student protesters could also be seen injured after reportedly being assaulted during the face-off with Uttar Pradesh Police.
These protests stem from the fact that while Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Council issued a notification regarding 11,508 vacancies on August 7, after nearly more than 30 years when such a recruitment drive was conducted in 1992 for urban schools, student protesters are now alleging that the number of vacancies advertised is not enough.
Speaking to The Wire on phone, Pankaj Pandey, convenor of the Sanyukt Pratiyogi Chatra Hunkar Manch, which is one of the student outfits coordinating this protest, said: “In the last ten days we have handed over multiple memoranda to the district magistrate which were addressed to the chief minister. Our main concern is that while the Yogi government is talking about 11,508 vacancies of teachers in primary schools, which includes seats mostly in urban areas. Hardly any vacancies are coming which pertain to rural areas. And if one takes that into consideration the total number of vacancies should ideally be 60,000.”
In their latest memorandum submitted to the local administration on September 10, the letter by students does provide a break-up of pending teacher vacancies in schools which need to be filled by the Uttar Pradesh government. “Demand for filling up 60,958 vacancies in primary schools has been raised for quite some time now. Going by the statement of the education minister in the assembly, a total of 12,075 vacancies in urban areas and 48,883 posts in rural areas are yet to be filled,” states the letter submitted by students.
According to a report in Economic Times, based on sources in the education department, ‘number of vacancies in rural schools could exceed 45,000; the process of uploading those details to the commission’s portal is currently in progress.’
“There are candidates who have finished both B.Ed and BTC training programmes, and since as per a 2023 Supreme Court judgment only those with BTC qualification are now considered as eligible while applying for vacancies in primary schools. Now this led to a situation wherein teacher aspirants who had done only B.Ed in a bid to get a job finished BTC as well. Now what we have is a large chunk of people vying for teaching posts which now goes past the TET barrier. And it is for this large number of aspirants for whom vacancies have almost disappeared in the last 7-8 years. Are we supposed to just collect degrees? It is that anger which is coming to the fore now,” Pandey added while talking to The Wire.
Student delegation with Prayagraj SDM Vinay Singh. Photo by special arrangement.
A delegation of teacher aspirants who had gathered in Prayagraj from different districts of Uttar Pradesh also met Sub Divisional Magistrate Vinay Singh on September 10 regarding permission for protests. The next day, on September 11, the delegation also met Additional District Magistrate of Prayagraj Satyam Mishra and submitted their demands which included:
- Recruitment formalities related to 60,000 vacancies of teachers in primary schools should begin immediately
- Clarification should be issued regarding vacancies related to UP Junior Aided Teacher recruitment
- Standard procedure be adopted while recruiting candidates both for the TGT group [Trained Graduate Teachers who teach classes 6 to 10] and PGT group [Post Graduate Teachers who teach classes 11 and 12]
- Provisions be made for grievance redressal of 1,25000 UPTET [Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test] candidates whose applications were rejected on grounds of error in filling of OMR sheet
In its earlier ground report from Prayagraj, The Wire had spoken with some student protesters on July 25, the day when then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had resigned following country-wide agitation by youth, with students from Uttar Pradesh complaining about various shortcomings including paper leaks in competitive exams being conducted by the state government.
Student protesters are now planning to raise these demands again through an agitation on September 17, celebrating it as ‘Berozgar Diwas’ (National Unemployment Day), which also happens to coincide with Modi's birthday.
This article went live on September fifteenth, two thousand twenty six, at fifty-five minutes past eleven in the morning.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
