The Kerala Education Ministry's decision to publish a list containing the names of teachers who are yet to get vaccinated in the state has caused people to come up with all sorts of conclusions as to why teachers are not getting their doses on schedule. The government has even decided to send show cause notices to these teachers.
The Education Minister V Sivan Kutty had said, "Though vaccination is a personal decision, one should not be a liability to the whole society." It is clear that teachers who are not vaccinated run the risk of contracting and spreading the pathogen to children if they are at school. But that is exactly why they have not been attending offline classes till they are vaccinated.
The other issue is that of name calling, an inevitability that with the release of such a list. While the ministry's statement said that 1,707 teachers and non-teaching staff have not taken the vaccine, it did not want to release their names and other details for now. One can only imagine the pandemonium that would ensue if such a list were to be put out.
But is every teacher who is yet to be fully vaccinated not doing their duty to themselves and their calling? Not quite. We caught up with a particular teacher who is yet to get her dose of vaccination. "When I was trying to register myself for the vaccination a few months back, I was unable to due to the rush for it online. A spot just did not open up for me. When I finally got an opening, I unfortunately contracted the virus in mid-September. That's the only reason why I haven't been able to vaccinate myself. I have been working from home since the classes are still online only. When we have meetings at school, we are careful enough to go when there are no children on site. When I am finally up for getting vaccinated this month, I will do that without fail," says Annie TA, a kindergarten teacher at a school in Ernakulam.
Perhaps it is within the confines of plausibility that many other teachers could have come across similar misfortunes. Instead of suspecting them to wilfully put student's health safety at risk, one must instead be sensitive to their plight.
