Tamil Nadu: Secondary school teachers resume strike after a day’s break

Tamil Nadu: Secondary school teachers resumed their strike on Friday after a day’s break after talks with the School Education Minister failed to reach an agreement on equal pay for equal work.

Secondary school teachers have been protesting in Chennai since December 26th demanding equal pay for equal work. Meanwhile, protesting Secondary School Teachers Senior Management Association (SSDA) officials were placed under house arrest. However, the teachers’ protest continued.

Minister Anbil Mahesh, School Education Department Director S. Kannappan, and Elementary Education Director P.A. Naresh held talks with SSDA administrators on Wednesday (January 14th). At that time, the SSDA organization provided the School Education Department officials with a full understanding of their demands. When no agreement was reached in these talks, a meeting was held with the Additional Chief Secretary of the School Education Department at the Chennai Secretariat. Notably, both meetings lasted seven hours.

The Education Department reportedly asked the protesting group for some time to decide on their demands. Following this, secondary school teachers did not participate in the protest on Pongal Day (January 15).

In this situation, secondary school teachers resumed their protest near the Chennai District Collector’s office on Friday, claiming they had not received any response from the government regarding the fulfillment of their demands. At that time, they held banners with various slogans against the government and chanted slogans emphasizing their demands.

Within minutes of the protest, police arrested the secondary school teachers and placed them in vehicles. A scuffle broke out between the teachers and the police. The arrested secondary school teachers were detained at a nearby community center.