A circular asking teachers to try and deliver cards containing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s message to students at the beginning of the new academic year to their homes has drawn flak from teachers’ organisations.
They have termed the circular from the Director of General Education to Deputy Directors of Education, Assistant Education Officers, and school head teachers mystifying, especially in the wake of the worrying COVID-19 situation in the State.
They pointed out that with the lockdown extended in the State till June 9, asking teachers to visit students’ homes to deliver the cards in person defied logic. The Chief Minister’s message to students could be delivered at the inauguration of Pravesanotsavam on June 1 that was to be telecast on KITE VICTERS channel and watched by students, their parents, and teachers.
There was no need for teachers to deliver the message cards, printed by the Kerala Books and Publishing Society, to students’ homes in person when COVID-19 restrictions were still in place.
The circular says that once the cards reach schools with the support of Samagra Shiksha’s block resource centres, head teachers should seek the help of teachers, parent-teacher associations, school management committees, and volunteers to get the cards into students’ hands before June 1. All COVID-19 protocols and safety measures should be adopted while distributing the cards, it says.
The All Kerala School Teachers’ Union came out against the move saying that at a time when latest technology was available for disseminating the message, there was no logic asking AEOs to take steps to deliver it to students.
A live video of the message could be made available for viewing any time or the message scanned and sent to students’ WhatsApp groups in schools, teachers’ organisations said.
The Kerala Pradesh School Teachers’ Association said teachers were already tied up with COVID-19 duty, Pravesanotsavam preparations, school admissions, and textbook and uniform distribution, and it was not right to burden them further. When school admissions and Pravesanotsavam were being conducted online, printing the message cards for delivering them to students, some of whom lived a good distance away from schools, was illogical.
The issue was also not discussed with teachers at the Quality Improvement Programme monitoring committee meeting held recently, the KPSTA pointed out.
