Member of Legislative Council (North Andhra Teachers’ Constituency) P. Raghuvarma on Thursday urged the State government to withdraw the proposal to merge primary schools with the high schools as it would deny the children the opportunity to pursue their education in the schools located close to their homes.
He said the merger of about 20,000 schools would lead to many difficulties for the children and their parents, primary among them being lack of proper transport as the high schools were located at far away places.
Mr. Raghuvarma was speaking after inaugurating the 75th anniversary celebrations of the A.P. Teachers’ Federation (APTF), in which around 8,000 delegates from across the State attended. State president of the federation K. Bhanumurthy was present.
Mr. Raghuvarma underlined the need to correct the flaws in the implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) to improve the education at the primary level and make it accessible to the children of the rural areas.
‘Fill vacancies’
Mr. Bhanumurthy urged the State government to fill the 51,000 teacher vacancies identified across the State. He further urged the senior officials of the Education Department to hold talks with the teacher associations and address the grievances aired by them.
‘Scrap CPS’
APTF State general secretary P. Panduranga Varaprasad urged the government to scrap the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and make public the Ashutosh Mishra Committee’s report on pay revision as thousands of teachers had been denied their due.
APTF district president M. Madanmohan and secretary Ch. Srinivasa Rao sought implementation of the Kothari Commission’s recommendations, which advocated the common school system and teaching of lessons in the students’ mother tongue.
Earlier, Srikakulam Zilla Parishad Chairperson P. Vijaya Sairaj said that teachers played a vital role in the all-round development of the children.
Ambedkar University Vice-Chancellor N. Venkata Rao lauded the APTF’s role in strengthening the education system.
