Eluru: Help teachers in private educational institutions, government urged

Eluru: The CPM city unit has demanded that the state government come to the rescue of three-lakh teaching and non-teaching staff working in private educational institutions in the state.

Activists and leaders of the party staged a dharna at Collectorate here over the issue. The staff had no salaries since March owing to Covid-19 lockdown. Even the corporate educational institutions had stopped paying salaries to the staff on the pretext of lockdown. They were forcing the staff to collect fee from parents for online classes, the agitators alleged.

City secretary of the party, P Kishore, said that as there is uncertainty over the timing of the reopening of the educational institutions in the wake of increasing Covid-19 cases, teachers in private sector were plunged into disappointment.

A majority of them have been engaged in other activities like selling vegetables and attending for labour works. A dozen of them committed suicide as their future appears bleak. The government should make a minimum wage payment of Rs 18,000 per month to them until the educational institutions reopen, he demanded.

He alleged that some managements have been sacking their staff during the crisis as the government plays the role of a silent spectator.

He also appealed to the managements of the educational institutions to provide even essential commodities to the hapless teachers until the lockdown continues.