Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation State president K. Bhanumurthy has urged the government to introduce online classes for government school students also since they lag behind the children studying in private and corporate schools which accorded top priority to the digital mode of teaching.
Mr. Bhanumurthy on Tuesday strongly objected to the government’s order for the compulsory attendance of all teachers to their respective schools from Tuesday.
“As many as 2,500 teachers came to schools with much difficulty in the absence of the public transport system. There is no specific work for teachers in the absence of students. All teachers are willing to conduct online classes if the government is able to provide equipment to schools. It should also give laptops and smartphones for students so that they would attend online classes. The government can utilise the ‘Amma Vodi’ funds for the purpose,” Mr. Bhanumurthy told The Hindu.
Federation State body councillor Sadasivuni Sankara Rao asked the government to give top priority to digital classes since the COVID-19 would continue to be a threat for students in near future too. “Many parents may not send students to schools even if they are open. So utilisation of technology will certainly help the children of government schools,” he added.
According to sources, the teachers, who work in the rural areas, strongly oppose the re-opening of schools only for teachers. Lack of any transport facility to villages causes much inconvenience to women teachers.
Normally, many teachers travel by RTC buses and catch auto-rickshaws to reach their respective schools. APSRTC is operating buses only to a few destinations in the district. Auto drivers are not operating vehicles fearing COVID-19. Moreover, there is a restriction on the total number of passengers.
Compulsory attendance
The Commissioner of School Education has said that attendance of teachers has been made compulsory to rectify several lapses in the Unified District Information System for Education.
All headmasters and teachers are advised to fill the data accurately as zero data with regard to enrollment of students and training programmes will lead to many complications in future during the submission of details to the Union government and NITI Aayog.
“The data with regard to parents’ committee meetings, children with special needs, audio-video equipment, NCC, NSS, scouts, Red Cross, and library has to be submitted immediately. Because of it, we insist on the attendance of teachers to schools,” said a senior officer of the Education Department.
