Punjab’s ETT Teachers Stage Protest in Chandigarh Seeking Pay Parity and Resolution of Old Recruitment Issues

Around 180 Elementary Teacher Training teachers working in Punjab government schools reached Chandigarh on Friday, October 2, along with family members including children. They first gathered in Sector 30 before moving towards the Sector 39 residence of Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia to highlight long-pending service matters.

The teachers said they wanted a peaceful meeting to present their grievances. Police stopped the group during the march. Several protesters were detained. In response, some teachers sat and lay down on the road, stating they had not come looking for confrontation but for dialogue on their jobs and salaries.

At the heart of the protest is a demand for pay parity. According to the teachers, they receive salaries under the Central 7th Pay Commission scales while other teachers recruited in the same batch draw benefits under Punjab government pay scales. They say the difference has left them struggling to manage household expenses and describe it as receiving roughly half the expected pay for the same work.

The dispute traces back to the 2016 ETT recruitment conducted under the previous SAD-BJP government. The teachers were later dismissed citing alleged irregularities in the selection process. They were reinstated following court orders, yet questions around pay scales and related service conditions remain unresolved, according to the protesters and their unions.

Union representatives, including state president Kamal Thakur of the ETT TET Pass Teachers’ Union, have been raising these points for months. An earlier demonstration outside the residence of Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema in August also ended with detentions. Teachers have repeatedly said they are educated professionals who would prefer to focus on teaching rather than take to the streets, but feel compelled by the lack of resolution.

For students in government schools, unsettled teacher service conditions can affect classroom stability and motivation. Parents often look for consistency in teaching staff, while education aspirants watching the process closely may question how recruitment and post-appointment issues are handled years later. Many of these teachers continue to teach even as they pursue their demands.

Police action and the presence of families, including children, added intensity to the day’s events in Chandigarh. The teachers maintained their intention was dialogue, not disruption. As of the latest reports, the core demands around equalising pay scales with the same recruitment batch and settling remaining service-related questions from the 2016 process remain pending with the state government.