Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) President and former minister Ajay Rai addressed a press conference at the state Congress headquarters , highlighting the deepening crisis in the state’s education system. He alleged that the entire system, from primary schools to higher education, has been engulfed by corruption under the Yogi Adityanath government.
Rai pointed out the plight of teachers in unaided schools, who neither receive dignified salaries nor have job security. He accused the government of neglecting teachers across secondary schools, degree colleges, madrasas, and Sanskrit institutions, warning that the future of thousands of educators remains uncertain. Displaying images of dilapidated school buildings and flooded classrooms, he said, “We are putting our children at daily risk, while the government remains unmoved.”
The UPCC President announced the appointment of Dr. Amit Kumar Rai as Coordinator and Prof. Shravan Kumar Gupta as Co-Coordinator of the Teachers’ Cell, vowing to strengthen it to lead a state-level movement on teachers’ issues.
Speaking at the press conference, Dr. Amit Rai called for equal pay for equal work, UGC pay scales for unaided degree college teachers, and restoration of the old pension scheme. He criticized the scrapping of service protections under Sections 18 and 21, delays in NPS grants, lack of regularization for ad-hoc teachers, and the absence of new teacher recruitments in schools, madrasas, and Sanskrit institutions. He further noted that the removal of Aalim and Fazil degrees is depriving students of higher education opportunities.
Prof. Shravan Kumar Gupta, Co-Coordinator of the Teachers’ Cell, accused the government of closing primary schools in violation of the Right to Education Act and pushing education into private hands. He also flagged corruption in the 69,000 teacher recruitment process and the misuse of teachers as BLOs during elections, despite Supreme Court guidelines.
Other key leaders present included Dr. Amit Kumar Rai, Prof. Shravan Kumar Gupta, Manish Srivastava Hindvi, Nitin Sharma, and Asif Rizvi Rinku.
