20 February,2023 09:30 PM IST | Mumbai | Dipti Singh
Non-teaching staff during the strike.
As the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education's Higher Secondary Certificate (Class 12) exam begins on Tuesday (February 21), the non-teaching staff associations across the state have intensified their ongoing strike starting Monday. On Monday the non-teaching staff associations called for a state-wide indefinite strike.
The unions of non-teaching staff led by the Maharashtra State University and College Employees Joint Action Committee and Maharashtra State Secondary School Non-teaching Staff Association went on strike from February 2.
The associations had already given a timeline to the state government about their strike. From February 2 only exam work had been boycotted. On February 14, non-teaching employees protested during the lunch break at their respective universities and institutes across the state. On February 15, they worked wearing black ribbons as a mark of boycott and protest. On February 16, they called for a one-day strike.
"As decided, if the government fails to fulfil our demands, our protest will intensify and employees will go on an indefinite strike from February 20. We have called for an indefinite strike to fight to get what we deserve and what is our right. We will not call off the strike until our demands are met," said Rupesh Malusare, General Secretary of Mumbai Vidyapeeth Karmachari Sangh.
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Even though the non-teaching staff has intensified their protest, board exams of HSC and SSC that are set during February and March won't be affected, assured the minister of higher and technical education Chandrakant Patil.
The indefinite strike of non-teaching staff across Maharashtra University has started from Monday, the HSC students will suffer psychologically due to this, during the Mahavikas Aghadi government, the teachers and non-teaching staff were taken into confidence by taking concrete actions, but during the current government has failed to do so. We urge the CM and Deputy CM to intervene and negotiate with these associations and resolve the matter before it affects students," said Pradeep Sawant, former Mumbai University Senate Member.
Meanwhile total 14,57,293 students have registered for the exam, including 664441 girls and 792780 boys across the state for HSC exam that will begin from February 21.
This Science stream has the highest number of candidates (66,0780), followed by the Arts stream (40,4761), and then the Commerce stream (34,5532). The remaining are from ITI or vocational courses.
The board has also declared contact numbers of counsellors for students and parents to seek help if they feel stressed due to the exam and need guidance.
7387400970
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