School teachers from across Telangana protesting against irregularities and issues hampering the quality of education at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalas Urban Residential Schools of the state were arrested by the police today, December 3. "Even the buses carrying the teachers from across the state to Hyderabad were stopped teachers weren't allowed to get down," said M Ravinder, State General Secretary of Telangana Progressive Teachers' Federation (TPTF), an organisation which was leading the protests.
The protest was planned to be held in front of the Office of the Director of School Education in the capital city, and gathering at various spots was also planned. "Several teachers were detained at the Nampally Police station," Ravindar said. The attitude of the police has irked the teachers. "We organised a peaceful protest, which is our right. But the government trying to disrupt it is unfair," the President said.
Speaking about the problems teachers and students face in the schools, he said, "The main issues lie with the way teachers are made to work in these institutions. Most of the teachers are females and they have to work 12 hours, even late into the night. They have not sanctioned leaves and their unused leaves are not carried forward to the next month. This verges on inhuman treatment."
He added that the teachers received an insufficient salary of Rs 26,000, which the teachers were demanding to be increased. And many of them were not regularized. "We want regularisation, timely appointment, and preferably direct appointments, without any contractual period," Ravindar said.
"The students are also not being given proper mid-day meals, bedding and trunk facilities. Even the transportation cost of rice and other food items is being borne by the school teachers. This is the government's lookout. So we have demanded that the quality of the meals and other provisions be improved," the TPTF President said further.
Ravindar claims that his association has been raising these issues for a long and sent several representations. But on receiving no response, a protest by the teachers highlighting these problems was held on November 7 at the Director of School Education's Office. Then, a week was given to the government to look into and resolve the issues.
"But nothing was done. So, on November 15, the teachers from all 475 such schools across Telangana protested at the schools themselves. Still, this evoked no response, and once more on November 26, we staged protests in front of all the Collectorates. Even then, the government did not consider our problems. Therefore, today we organised a mass protest, but the government involved the police and disrupted it," a disappointed Ravindar said.
He added, "We demand that the government intervene and resolve the problems in these schools. We want a committee to be constituted by the concerned Secretaries and the matter is sorted out as soon as possible."
