The All Kerala School Teachers’ Union (AKSTU) took out a march to the Secretariat on Saturday evening raising a slew of demands, including that the State withdraw from the PM SHRI scheme and corrective measures to address what it described as the neglect of the general education sector in the Revised Budget.

The association demanded that the United Democratic Front (UDF) abandon the move to implement PM SHRI in the State. The scheme was a way devised by the Union government to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) that promotes communalisation and saffronisation, the AKSTU said. K. Padmanabhan, AKSTU State secretary, called the Revised Budget disappointing saying it ignored government employees and teachers,

The AKSTU said the revised pay should have been implemented with effect from July 1, 2024. Although the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had announced the 12th Pay Revision Commission and directed it to submit a report within three months, the commission could not function as elections were announced. Instead of extending the term of the commission, the new UDF government has frozen it. The revised Budget is silent about the pay revision. Not only is there no allocation in the Budget for the increase in pay, the amount earmarked for salary and pension is ₹8,000 crore less that what the previous LDF government had allocated, the AKSTU said.

AKSTU Thiruvananthapuram district unit president Praveen. S presided over the event.