Hyderabad: School teachers, lecturers stage protests to highlight their plight

Hyderabad: Teachers and lecturers from the private schools and colleges took to the streets on Saturday to highlight their plight when the nation celebration Teacher's Day, on Saturday. Calling the government-backed celebrations and felicitations of the teachers on the occasion of Teachers Day, a cruel joke, lecturers working in the private engineering colleges staged a protest before the statue of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, at Tankbund.

The protestors said, on the one hand, teachers being felicitated. On the other, tens and thousands are struggling to make their ends meet. The protesters said that the colleges are issuing terminating the services of the lecturers left and right in the name of online education. Many did not pay salaries for the last six to nine months. Some paid and continue to pay only partial salaries, they added.

Repeated pleas to every authority concerned in the State and regulatory bodies like UGC, AICTE have fallen on deaf ears, they rued. Under the aegis of the Telangana School's Technical College's Employees Association (TSTCEA), they submitted a representation to the State Planning Board, Vice-Chairman, B Vinod Kumar.

The Telangana Recognised School Managements Association (TRASMA) called all its member schools to observe the Teachers Day, a black day. TRASMA president Yadagir Sekhara Rao said that about one lakh teachers working in the budget schools in the State rendered jobless due to the COVID. Besides, the future of the schools of budget schools reamined uncretain, he added.

Against this backdrop, sporting black badges member of the TRASM, along with the teachers demanded the State government to announce a Rs 7,000 per month financial assistance to the teachers working in the private schools in the State, for the period of COVID-19 lockdown. The Telangana Private Teachers Forum (TPTF) called the teachers to observe the Teachers working in private schools across the State as a black day.

Besides, to stage protests before the offices of the District Education Officers. In Hyderabad, the private teachers staged a protest before the Hyderabad DEO Office. TPTF State president Shabbir Ali said that the State government and its official machinery remained mum despite the school managements violating the GOs and rules and regulations. He sad, not able to see families starving the many teachers in the State have gone to MGNREGS works, engaged as coolies and turned as street vendors, he said.