Hyderabad: Teachers demands put government in a spot

Hyderabad: Are teachers' unions fishing in troubled waters? If the goings-on are of any indication, the teachers' unions have placed a charter of fresh demands before the State government and the Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy.

They include the declaration of summer holidays and closure of schools. That apart, the unions have also demanded the State government that after the declaration of holidays, it should take up promotions, inter-district transfers and set in the process for the recruitment of thousands of vacant teaching posts.

Speaking to The Hans India, an official from the Education department on the condition of anonymity, said, "Literally the pressure tactics applied by some of the teachers' unions and agreed by the State government have posed troubles to the State government."

The pressure mounted by the teachers' unions and the school managements harping on the loss of precious learning time of students being far away from the physically worked in their favour. In turn, despite the objections raised by the Education department, the State government had taken a policy decision ahead of the graduate constituency MLC elections to physically reopen the schools.

It may be mentioned here that the unions have put forward how the schools have reopened in several countries across the globe and other States in the country taking Covid precautions.

However, the State government had ended up in an embarrassing situation with reports of school and college students developing Covid symptoms forcing it to shut down the educational institutions before the situation goes out of control.

Early on, from the time the schools were physically reopened in February this year, the teachers' unions were up in arms against the State government to mount pressure on the issue of declaration of PRC, promotions, transfers and a host of other pending issues.

Now, the teachers' unions say that the State government has cancelled the SSC examinations and decided to promote students to the next class. In turn, the students are not showing interest in attending online classes as they anyway going to be promoted to the next class.

This being the reason, now the unions have been demanding the State government to declare holidays and take up the pending issues like promotions, inter-district transfers and other issues.

Now the million-dollar question staring at the officials of the department and parents is, Whether the State government should give into the pressure mounted by the teachers' unions or should it act keeping the interests of the students paramount?