Covid jabs expose chinks in Telangana Government armour

Hyderabad: The special vaccination drive proposed by the State government to vaccinate teachers ahead of reopening schools as per the teachers is said to have expose the discrepancy in the number of teachers working in the private schools in Telangana.

It may be mentioned here that as per the figures given by the education department, 2,04,743 teachers have been given Covid-19 financial aid and 25 kg rice. It is the only official data of private teachers available with the government given by the school managements. The number of teachers who applied via offline mode is over 35,000 according to the private teacher's forum. However, the education department put the figure of teachers who have applied through offline mode, who are yet to receive the aid, as 15000.

Speaking to The Hans India, the Telangana Private Teachers Forum (TPTF) said that the government is using the same data which was submitted by the schools' managements to understand the numbers of teachers working in the private schools to be vaccinated. Also, there is no clarity as to how many have been vaccinated so far.

"The education department has details of the private school teachers of around 2 lakhs. But, the number of teachers turning up at the vaccination centres shows that the number would be double the number of data of private school teachers that is with the education department," they added.

The TPTF president Shabbir Ali said that teachers whose data is not submitted by the school managements are seen carrying identity cards and Aadhaar cards at the vaccination centres." He further added, "The mandal officials have sent an application form to teachers sothey can visit the PHC and get vaccinated."

Early on, teachers have been demanding a special drive as several of them have lost lives and many others have been affected by Covid-19. However, many schools and colleges held their own vaccination drive in schools tied up with private hospitals. Many private school teachersvaccinated on their own or by schools. If these numbers are taken, then the total number of teachers working in the private schools in the State will be more than the data uploaded to the school education department portal.The whole exercise of providing Covid relief to the private school teachers and the number of private school teachers turning up for vaccination and those so far vaccinated has brought into light the actual number of teachers working in the private schools in Telangana would be anywhere above 4 lakh.

He said that the private teachers and their families have been severely affected during the first and second wave of Covid due to the closure of the schools. The situation was further aggravated due to the non-payment of salaries and arbitrary termination of employment by the school managements. The private school teachers have made fervent pleas to the State government giving almost the exact number of teachers working the private schools in the State. But it had gone with the data provided by the school managements, which is less than 50 per cent of the actual number of private teachers in the State.

Now, the state government should take cognizance of the Covid relief data and the vaccination data of the private school teachers, and take necessary steps to ensure that the schools implement the existing rules and regulations to protect their salaries, PF, ESI, and other statutory benefits, he added.