Leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation are on a warpath over what they call “utter neglect” of the key issues that are directly related to the welfare of the teaching fraternity in the State.
To build pressure on the government for a solution to their long-pending issues, the federation has called for State-wide protests on July 29.
In a statement, the federation president K. Bhanu Murthy and general secretary P. Panduranga Varaprasadarao said dharnas would be staged at the taluk offices by teachers seeking immediate redressal of their problems.
They alleged that even as the problems were piling up, the government looked the other way. The demand for repeal of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and bringing back the old pension scheme was still hanging fire and even after three years, the PRC was not yet implemented. It was a long wait for teachers to receive the payment of the arrears of six phases of Dearness Allowances, they pointed out, complaining that the Government, instead, was focussed on merger of the Classes 3, 4 and 5 into High Schools without having a coherent plan in place.
Citing the challenges ahead, they said the classrooms used in the past would not be sufficient to accommodate all students in view of the social distancing norms. There was a need to recruit at least 20,000 more teachers to cater to the small divided classrooms. Every school needed additional classrooms but the authorities concerned were silent on the issue.
The job calendar released by the government had no mention of the DSC, they said, adding that though the government had been talking about an additional 6 lakh admissions in the State-run schools this academic year, it had not spelt out its stand on the additional facilities needed.
Seeking to draw the authorities’ attention to the plight of some of the teaches who had not received their salaries in last six months after their transfers, they said due to non-implementation of the service rules, hundreds of posts of Mandal Education Officers, Deputy Education Officers and DIET (District Institute of Education and Training) lecturers were lying vacant.
Their demands include repeal of the proposed school restructure programme, drop the proposal to introduce CBSE syllabus in classes 9,10, 11 and 12 Classes, prompt and regular payment of salaries, steps to fill the vacant teacher posts and spare teachers of the duties relating to government programmes like Nadu-Nedu and other programmes among other issues.
