We don't want to upload info on apps, it takes up teaching hours: Teachers in Andhra Pradesh

Leaders of the Andhra Pradesh United Teachers’ Federation (UTF) have condemned the arrest of the teachers who took part in a demonstration at the Vijayawada District Education Officer’s office on November 2 in support of their demand that they be exempted from the responsibility of uploading information on the several apps introduced by the School Education authorities.

The Federation’s State President N Venkateswarlu and General Secretary KSS Prasad told The Hindu that one teacher in primary schools and two more — if the size of the school was big — was appointed for uploading information including the pictures of the bathrooms and teachers’ attendance on various apps. This exercise, they said, went up till 12.30 pm effectively taking up the entire morning session.

Headmasters of the schools that could not upload the information properly were issued memos, they reportedly said. They said that the children had been away from classroom teaching for 18 months on account of the lockdown imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Now, the schools are open and the teachers do not have sufficient time to discharge to the additional task of uploading information on the apps,” Venkateswarlu told The Hindu.

‘No response from authorities’
Prasad reportedly said that the federation organised school-level and mandal-level demonstrations last month as the Education Minister and the department higher-ups did not respond to their representations. The federation leaders told the daily that if the government failed to address their pleas, they would intensify protest and stage a demonstration at the office of the Department of School Education in the district.