The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Campaign to focus on teachers' problems

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Campaign to focus on teachers' problems

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JUNE 8. The Andhra Pradesh United Teachers Federation (APTUF) will launch a statewide campaign to focus on the long pending problems of teachers, including the uncertainty in the service rules of the School Education Department and the sorry plight of Government schools.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, UTF president K.Jojayya and general secretary N.Narayana, said that as a result of uncertainty in service rules, promotions, transfers, regularisation and other such basic issues had come to a standstill. Some senior teachers were retiring without promotion even though they were eligible for promotion while thousands of posts that should have been filled through promotions were lying vacant, affecting school administration and making students suffer due to dearth of subject teachers. Neglect by the previous Government had resulted in such a situation, they alleged.

The UTF leaders who met the new Education Minister, N.Rajyalakshmi, explained her the problems of teachers and submitted a memorandum on Monday.

Stating that delay in supply of textbooks had become a regular feature, they said even three to four months after the reopening of schools, the textbooks for all subjects and languages were not being supplied. The mid-day meal scheme being implemented in the present format was full of loopholes while majority of the Government schools lacked drinking water and toilet facilities. The UTF also submitted its suggestions to the Minister for improving the state of affairs in the schools. The Minister who favourably responded to their suggestions assured the federation leaders that he would convene a meeting of all teachers' unions on June 11 at the Directorate of School Education for taking appropriate decisions.

Meanwhile, the State executive of the UTF which met on June 5 decided to create awareness among teachers about the proposed talks with the Government through distribution of pamphlets and seek the signatures of teachers on the memoranda which would be submitted to the Government. The Federation leaders would go to Delhi for orders for local cadre organisation of Panchayat Raj teachers' posts. In spite of their efforts, if there was no response from the Government to address the problems of teachers, the UTF with other teachers' unions would launch united struggles in August at the district and State level, they said.

The main demands listed in the memoranda submitted to the Education Minister are measures for early printing and supply of textbooks, appointment of exclusive machinery for running the mid-day meal scheme efficiently, provision of drinking water, toilets in schools, particularly in girls' schools, sanction of subject teacher posts to the upgraded primary and upper primary schools and abolition of Quality Improvement Programme that was opposed by people last year.

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Andhra Pradesh