The Upadhaya Sanghala Porata Committee (USPC), a conglomerate of 18 teachers’ organisations in the State, has addressed an open letter to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, requesting him to address their long-pending demands including promotions, filling f vacancies, transfer schedule and administrative and professional issues arising out of GO 317.
Releasing the letter at a press conference here, representatives of the USPC announced a series of protest programmes to pressure the government to respond to their demands. The protests include dharnas at the Collectorates on September 1, and relay hunger strikes on September 4 followed by a massive dharna at Indira Park on September 11.
Those who addressed the press conference included K. Jangaiah and Chava Ravi (TSUTF), M. Raghushankar Reddy and T Linga Reddy (DTF), M. Ravinder and Y. Ashok Kumar (TPTF), U. Pochaiah (STF), S. Mahesh (TS-MSTF), Jadhav Venkat Rao and Dooda Raja Narsu Babu (SC/ST TU) and Y. Vijay Kumar (SC/ST US).
It was unfortunate that the budget allocation for education had come down from 12% in the combined Andhra Pradesh to just 6.26% in separate Telangana, they said.
The delay in supplying textbooks with just 6o to 70 lakh supplied out of the 1.70 crore books was hampering teaching and students who joined the English medium were worst hit. Before COVID, 15,000 vidya volunteers were recruited but after the reopening of schools, they had been ignored leaving several schools with a shortage of teachers ultimately affecting poor students. These were serious issues that needed the Chief Minister’s attention immediately so that the functioning of the school education system was put back on track, they said.
The union leaders also objected to transfers of individual teachers in violation of the norms and said this has caused heartburn among the seniors waiting for transfers for long. The scheduled should be announced immediately, they said.
