MLA handles classes in corpn school as teachers strike

Coimbatore: Filling the void created by the teachers, who were on an indefinite strike for the third consecutive day, Coimbatore South MLA Amman K Arjunan found time to teach students of the Kottaimedu Corporation Middle School on Thursday.
Arjunan was inspecting wards under the south constituency when he noticed the school, which has 60 students, without teachers. “Three teachers were sent on deputation to the school, but all of them participated in the strike. A couple of helpers were struggling to manage the students. So, I decided to handle some classes,” he said.

The AIADMK MLA, a high school graduate, taught alphabets and numbers to the students in Kindergarten, Class I and II. “I used to teach my grandchildren at home. Teaching at the school was no different. I taught them the basics of English, Tamil and Mathematics,” the 60-year-old man told TOI.

He will conduct classes in other schools in his constituency from Friday, Arjun said. “The teachers have the right to fight for their cause. But students should not suffer.”

But, not all schools were fortunate to have an alternative teacher. Over 80% of the government elementary and middle schoolteachers and 30% of the government high and higher secondary schoolteachers had participated in the strike, according to the school education department.

As the Pongal celebrations concluded just days ago, most of the students are still in a holiday mood. Soon after they returned to schools, teachers went on strike.

“While the department has deployed private schoolteachers and training teachers at some schools, most of the schools, especially elementary schools, are functioning only with helpers,” said a headmaster. “Students, who hardly had two periods for games per week, are now having two a day. This is how we have been keeping them in the school,” he said. “For the sake of the students, the state government should hold talks with the teachers at the earliest instead of deploying temporary teachers. The students take at least a few months to mingle with the new teachers. With the annual examination fast approaching, there is not much time left to spend on leisure.”

At some schools, teachers put additional effort and taught Class X and Class XII students either before or after participating in the strike, said another headmaster.

Chief educational officer P Ayyannan said that the department managed to keep the schools open with the help of temporary teachers. Acknowledging that classes are getting affected due to the strike, he said that the department has been making alternative arrangements to commence teaching process from Monday.

On the third day, over 5,000 government schoolteachers and employees participated in a massive strike in front of the collectorate. The city police detained over 3,000 of them.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to engage retired and temporary staff to handle primary grade classes if the teachers don’t return to work.