The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday told the Madras High Court that it will take disciplinary action against 33,487 teachers from government schools who participated in the ongoing strikes in the state. It told the bench that the protests were organised by six government employees unions, PTI reported.

On Wednesday, the Madras High Court had criticised the teachers on strike and said they were responsible for the poor performance of students from government schools in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test. Admissions to undergraduate medical and dentistry colleges are based on Neet scores.

The Joint Action Council of Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisations had called for a strike from September 7 to have the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission implemented and the old pension scheme restored, among other demands, PTI reported.

The Tamil Nadu government said the teachers had been refusing to take classes in schools across the state, and that retired teachers were working as office-bearers in the unions. “Arrangements have been made to engage trainee teachers and [members] of parent-teacher associations to conduct classes,” the state said in its affidavit.