PPTI students on fast unto death

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, March 7, 2007
At least 25 students of Primary Teachers Training Institutes (PTTI) declared illegal in the state are fasting unto death.
On June 16, the high court had declared all 136 PTTIs in the state illegal because none of them had affiliation from the National Council for Teachers Training (NCTE) which was mandatory. With that, the degrees of over 59,000 passouts were rendered invalid and examination of 16,000 students were stopped. “Though the higher education department resolved the problem of the BEd colleges by negotiating with the NCTE, the school education department filed a suit at the Calcutta High court demanding right to affiliation to PTTIs. That case is pending almost a year on, and so are our exams,” said Pintu Parui, general secretary of West Bengal Primary Teachers Training Students Union (WBPTTISU).
Along with member students of the union, the students’ wings of the CPI (AISF), of the RSP (PSU) and of the Forward Bloc (AISP), the Chhatra Parishad and the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad too have joined in the hungerstrike in front of Esplanade Metro station.
On Thursday, representatives of WBPTTISU will meet HRD minister Arjun Singh and the chairman of the NCTE in New Delhi. The same day, students of PTTI will go to the Assembly and urge MLAs to address their plight. “We met state school education minister Partha De but he could not help us. So we will be meeting Arjun Singh and will also go to NCTE. Since the state has not been able to solve our problem despite the mistake affecting the future of over 75,000 students, we will approach the Centre,” said Parui.
Though the union had urged the SFI to join the hungerstrike, the request was turned down. “They are the largest students’ organisation in the state and any help from them would be appreciated,” said Parui.
The state president of the SFI, Sudip Sengupta, along with a delegation of PTTI students met the school education minister on Wednesday and urged him to make the students a party to the lawsuit so that they too can talk about their problem in the courtroom. The minister has agreed to the proposal. “We want the problem to be addressed as quickly as possible and that will not be done if the case is not wrapped up quickly. We have urged the state government to act after considering the future of so many students,” said Sengupta.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com