Leaders of the A.P. United Teachers’ Federation (UTF) on Tuesday urged the government to halt supply of school kits, being distributed to students under the Jagananna Vidya Kanuka, in view of the sharp spike in COVID-19 cases in the State.
In a statement, federation’s State president N. Venkateswarlu and general secretary K.S.S. Prasad said the unprecedented rise in infections triggered panic among the teachers tasked with arranging the kits for distribution.
They said that the pandemic had so far claimed the lives of nearly 200 teachers in the State. Many teachers and their family members were undergoing treatment for the virus.
Going by the seriousness of the situation, the government too had decided to impose partial curfew, they said.
“Under these circumstances, the directive of the State Project Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan that teachers be present in schools to receive the Vidya Kanuka material from May 3 is causing worry,” they said.
In some districts, the complexes housing upper primary schools did not have additional rooms to store the material, they said. In such cases, permission should be given to store the material in the high schools located nearby, they added.
