The hunger strike staged by temporary teachers in the Capital to press the government for implementation of a past agreement entered its 18th day on Saturday. 

Demanding that the government should provide permanent appointment and ensure pay parity as mentioned in the agreement signed nearly six years ago, Temporary Teachers’ Struggle Committee (TTSC) has been staging relay hunger strike at Shanti Batika in Ratna Park since 18 December . 

So far, the committee has not received any response from the government side.      General Secretary of TTSC  Dinesh Thapa said they were forced to go on a hunger strike, as the government paid no heed to their demand for implementation of the past agreement.

“Temporary teachers and the government had signed the agreement on various issues like giving permanent status to the temporary 

teachers appointed before 5 August 2004, but it was never implemented,” Thapa said.

TTSC has also demanded the government to immediately implement the 2010 Supreme Court’s mandamus order to provide facilities to temporary teachers on par to their counterparts with permanent appointment.

“More than 40 of our colleagues have retried from the teaching service and they did not receive any benefit,” said Thapa.

Among other demands put forth by TTSC that the government had agreed to fulfill are providing uniforms to all school teachers, scraping the provision of contract teachers from the education regulation and internal competition for appointments in permanent positions.

The agitating teachers have also accused the government of trying to remove them from the service through an ‘arbitrary’ education regulation, dictating that temporary teachers can renew their service period only until mid-April 2013.

According to TTSC, there are around 17,000 temporary teachers working across the nation.