‘Teaching at Anganwadis will hurt career’

CHENNAI: As the State gets ready to roll out the new LKG and UKG classes at Anganwadi centres on January 21, Tamil Nadu Secondary Grade teachers have raised objections to teach at the centres.
The School Education Department had recently announced that it will be introducing 2,300 LKG and UKG classes in Anganwadi centres in government school campuses, to offer an alternative to parents who put their children in English medium private schools instead. The move was also taken to curb the gradual decrease in government elementary schools.

In a bid to appoint staff for the new classes at a short notice, the government has decided to use Secondary Grade teachers, who teach elementary school students in classes 1-5.

This has however irked teachers, who say that teaching at Anganwadi centres after undergoing teacher’s training, will downgrade their career. “Montessori teachers take up a different training course. We have been trained and certified to handle elementary school children,” said PK Ilamaran from Tamil Nadu Government Teachers Association.

He further added that the work load of other elementary school teachers will increase if they are asked to teach lower classes. He said that many schools follow this trend across higher grades too. “Middle school teachers are asked to fill in for vacancies at elementary schools, high school teachers are asked to handle students in class 6-8 and so on,” he rued, adding that the government should not change appointments without considering the qualification of the staff.

A senior official from the School Education department, argued that the government was redesignating only surplus staff. He said that headmasters of schools in which the centres were located, were asked to collate a list of surplus secondary grade teachers. “We are however trying this only on a pilot basis. We will strictly use only surplus staff for the time being,” the education department official said.