TDP leader and MLC Paruchuri Ashok Babu on Saturday alleged that teachers in the State are being subjected to harassment as they actively participated in the agitation programme against the State Government policy on the Pay Revision Commission (PRC).
Memos were served on 625 head masters of various schools in Srikakulam district and two teachers were placed under suspension at Anakapalle just because they attended their school just two minutes late. He said these incidents are evident that the State government is adopting a vengeful attitude towards the teaching community.
He said that lakhs of teachers have taken part in the agitation programme organised in Vijayawada against the PRC and the Chief Minister could not digest that the teachers, on such a large scale, took part in the strike. Thus, they are being subjected to persecution, he said.
The leaders of the teaching community were either threatened or enticed, the agitation programme somehow ended, he stated. Memos are served on the teachers as they could not upload the pictures of the toilets, Ashok Babu said adding that if there is any single individual in the State who is drawing salary every month without work it is only the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister has absolutely no idea as to how to bring in reforms in the academic sector. On the one hand he says that he will reform the whole sector and on the other digital classes and rationalisation of schools are being encouraged.
Ashok Babu said that the academic sector is something different which the Chief Minister could not understand. It is not like pressing the button which the Chief Minister used to, he said and stated that painting the school buildings under Naadu-Nedu scheme or distributing sops under Amma Vadi are not part of encouraging the education system.
Drafting the teachers for Corona duty during the pandemic cost the lives of some teachers and the condition of the community is worse in Andhra Pradesh than in any other State, Ashok Babu said. It is really pathetic that some teachers are posted on duty to control the crowd near liquor shops, and some of them are asked to take pictures near bathrooms, he said and asked is this the way to bring in reforms in the sector, he asked.
In the periodical surveys conducted for every four years on educational standards, Andhra Pradesh is the lowest, Ashok Babu said and demanded that the State government take immediate measures to improve the system and should not put the teachers and students to untold hardships.