Teachers’ unions staged protests at respective district education officer’s offices in the erstwhile 13 districts across the State on Sunday demanding that promotions be taken up by authorities manually and in offline mode. They also said the department officials should desist from blocking any of the available posts. The protests were in response to a call given by Federation of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Organisations (FAPTO).
In a statement, FAPTO state chairman N. Venkateswarlu and secretary general Ch. Manjula said teachers had been waiting for promotions for a long time. Last year, the officials collected the names in July and December and made the enlisted teachers work for an allowance of ₹2,500. But, the officials declared the promotions null and void later.
The federation leaders said confusion reigned supreme on the G.O. on teacher transfers and clarity eluded even after several talks with the Education Minister and the department officials.
They demanded that the scheduled promotions be released and counselling sessions be conducted offline. The State committee leaders of FAPTO said the government should initiate measures that are in the interest of the teacher community rather than causing hardships to them through G.O.s with discrepancies.
The government issued G.O. no. 47 with detailed guidelines on teacher transfers in the past. As per the order, headmasters who had completed five academic years at a single location and teachers who completed eight years at a single location would get mandatory transfer.
Teachers could, however, place request transfer through online mode and attend web counselling. There was no service limit for request transfers. The G.O. said the teachers who don’t place the request will continue at same school until they complete the prescribed service period for mandatory transfer.
Teachers’ associations expressed apprehensions over the government order, alleging that the authorities blocked a few vacancies in category 1,2 and 3 transfers. They also said that the education system in government schools got affected with rationalisation of schools after G.O. 117 was released and the subsequent merger of schools.
