Vexed with “government apathy”, leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Teachers' Federation (APTF) have decided to launch a sustained agitation in a phased manner to build pressure on the authorities concerned to solve their long-standing issues.
The leaders called upon teachers to identify their pressing local issues and submit representations on them at the Mandal Education Offices on April 19, while on April 26, they should take out rallies and stage dharnas at the Collectors’ offices.
In a statement on Wednesday, the federation leaders alleged “gross indifference” on the part of the government towards the community. Citing some of their key issues, they said while Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised to repeal the controversial Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) immediately after coming to power, he had not done so even after completing two years in power. Teachers being deprived of DA and non-implementation of the Pay Revision Commission recommendations were other perennial issues, they said.
Demands
They said teachers who were transferred had not received their salaries in last three months, there were irregularities in the promotions, and introduction of several new apps in their day-to-day work had only worsened the situation. They said initially teachers were asked to deal with apps related to classroom lessons and exams but now, they were having to deal with apps relating to the number of eggs received by their schools as part of mid-day-meal scheme or even the toilets being constructed under Mana Badi-Nadu Nedu programme.
Their main demands include repeal of the CPS and restoration of the old pension scheme, declaration of the PRC and its implementation from July 1, 2018, solution to the issue of joint service rules and steps to fill the nearly 20,000 vacant teacher posts in the State.
This year, the government schools witnessed an additional 4 lakh admissions, thus creating the need for 14,000 more teachers. The federation wanted the government to sanction these extra posts and recruit eligible candidates. It said teachers should be spared the non-teaching activities and posts of watchmen, attender, scavenger, sweeper, record assistant, library assistant, lab assistatn, junior assistant and computer operator be sanctioned and recruitments made for the same.
The federation leaders said the teachers would not relent until their key demands were met by the government.
