Goa education department flouts Centre’srule, asks staff to attend schools

PANAJI: In complete disregard to the directives of the Centre, the state education department has made it mandatory for teaching and non-teaching staff to attend schools. The education department’s insistence comes at a time when Goa is emerging as one of the hotspots for Covid-19 cases in the country, with over 100 cases being reported daily on an average in the past six days.
Despite the secretary in the department of school education and literacy under the ministry of human resource development, Anita Karwal, sending a directive to all the states on July 6 to strictly implement the home ministry’s directives to keep the schools shut and teaching and non-teaching staff to work from home “as far as possible”, the Goa education department has snubbed the Centre’s order.
On June 23, even as Goa’s Covid cases were showing a spike, director of education Vandana Rao issued a circular asking all teaching and non-teaching staff in Goa to report to schools to work and institutes are implementing the orders since June 24.
Rao, who had issued the order mandating all teaching and non-teaching staff to attend schools, sent a terse reply when asked whether her department was reconsidering the decision: “Yes, we are putting it up.”
With Rao yet to conform to the HRD order, teachers have appealed to chief minister Pramod Sawant, who also holds the education portfolio, to allow them to work from home.
Dattatray Naik, president of All Goa Secondary School Teachers’ Association, has written to Sawant stating that the directorate of education is trampling on the law and putting the safety and life of teachers at risk.
“We are living in a democratic setup where the rule of law is in force. All guidelines issued by the MHA and the MHRD insist on work from home. However, in complete violation of the guidelines and circulars issued by the Union government, the directorate had issued a circular on June 23, making it compulsory for all teachers to attend the school regularly,” said Naik.
He said this is in “total contravention of the Union government’s directives”.
“The directorate forcing teachers to travel by public transport is nothing but putting their life at risk for no reason. We earnestly request you to direct it to issue a circular for teachers to work from home and to follow the directives of MHA strictly,” Naik said.
President of Higher Secondary School Teachers’ Association of Goa Anant Pissurlekar said he has sought a meeting with the chief secretary to bring this violation to his notice.
“When cases in the state are rising, it is being insisted that teachers should report to work. It is not that teachers are sitting idle at home, they had already invested in equipment at home and had begun classes online. For everything else, the CM quotes central government guidelines, then why are the directives not being followed only when it comes to teachers,” said Pissurlekar.
Headmaster of Shishu Niketan High School, Navelim, Vithoba Dessai said action should be initiated against the director for violation of the central government’s orders.
“The director should be removed from the post for this violation and orders should be issued immediately to allow teachers to work from home,” said Dessai.