KATA to stage dharna on August 20

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Action Council for Teacher’s Association (KATA) will stage a ‘dharna’, in front of the State Council for Education and Research Training (SCERT), Poojapura,on August 20,10 am to protest against the newly appointed SCERT Director K A Hashim, who has been alleged to have manipulated his bio data submitted to various funding agencies for getting funds for his research projects while he was the Kerala University Registrar.  Former Health Minister and CPM leader P K Sreemathi will inaugurate the ‘dharna.’ CPI Leader Pannian Ravindran, Congress (S) leader Kadannapally Ramachandran and former Water Resources Minister and RSP leader N K Premachandran will attend the ‘dharna’, KSTA General Secretary M Shajahan,said during a press conference here on Wednesday. The council strongly recommended the reduction of student-teacher ratio to 1:30 from classes one to ten. Appointment of headmasters in all Upper Primary and Lower Primary schools is another demand raised by KATA as it will help in rehabilitating teachers who had lost their jobs following fall in number of students in schools.  The posts of special language teachers should be protected, he said. The model question papers for the reintroduced Onam examination are yet to be published by SCERT, he said.  KATA General Secretary A V Indulal, KSTA President K N Kumaran, Kerala Parents Teachers Association (KPTA ) Revenue District President R S Sunil, and Kerala State Teachers’ Associatio(KSTA) president K N Sukumaran also attended the press conference.