Kerala   

Alternative school teachers facing neglect

MALAPPURAM: Teachers of the alternative schools or multi-grade learning centres functioning under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan are a neglect lot, with low pay and no job security.

Though several of them make perilous journeys every day to reach the schools, they are paid an honorarium of only Rs.2,500 a month and face the threat of losing the job.

Although they have an association named the Kerala Badal School Teachers Association (KBSTA), its voice rarely reaches the higher echelons of power. It has a membership of below 500.

There are 372 alternative schools in the State, spread over the Adivasi, coastal and other backward areas. Fift-four of them are in Malappuram district, with 77 teachers working for 2,200 students. As many as 30 of the 54 alternative schools in the district are concentrated in the Adivasi regions of Nilambur.

“We have been facing neglect for years despite the hardships we face. Some of us travel on foot through dense forests risking the the danger of attacks by elephants, bison, snakes, and other wild animals to reach the schools in the Adivasi areas,” says K. Narayanan, district president of the KBSTA.

Mr. Narayanan walks 14 km through the forest to reach the Alakkal colony of Adivasis in Nilambur where he teaches.

“Everyday I travel about 28 km through the dangerous forests, risking my life,” he says. Some of the teachers face the threat of termination on the ground that they do not have the qualifications required to teach at the alternative schools. However, all of them have over 200 days residential training given in the past 11 years.

Although the teachers were appointed on an annual contract basis, the period has now been slashed to three months.

“This is a serious threat to the security of our job,” says I. Shoukathali, district secretary of the KBSTA.

He says that several benefits given to them, including maternity leave, salary and leave surrender, have been slashed by the authorities. The teachers staged a dharna in front of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan office here over a week ago demanding job security and raising of the contract period to one year. They also demanded that their employment conditions be revised and their lives be insured.

The teachers demanded that their training be considered equivalent to Teacher Training Course (TTC), which qualifies the trainee to teach in primary classes.

Alternative schools, known by various names such as multi-grade learning centres or single-teacher schools, were introduced in the State in 1997 as part of the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) under the Central Human Resources Development Ministry’s Sarva Siksha Abhiyan project.

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