The AP Municipal Teachers Federation (APMTF) has strongly opposed the merger of municipal schools and bringing them under the purview of the Education Department.
At a State-level meeting held at the Public Library here on Monday, the participants condemned the move of the government transferring the valuable assets of the municipal corporation schools like lands, buildings and staff to the Education Department.
Presiding over the meeting, APMTFState president T. Venkata Reddy said that the education reforms initiated by the government were detrimental to the interests of the teachers and students and the meeting has unanimously resolved to protect municipal schools. He said all the teachers unions had already represented to the government. The municipal schools were a part of the civic bodies and they could not be separated from them. He said that the government was not taking any steps for strengthening of the municipal schools. He sought sanction of Education Officers and Education Supervisor posts.
MLC Ravi Varma condemned the merger of the assets of municipal schools and bringing them under the purview of the Education Department. He said that merger would create problems for the teachers and they would lose their seniority. He recalled that past experience has shown that governments had to face defeat, when teachers and intellectuals saw red.
All India Save Education Committee (AP) general secretary S. Govindarajulu said that government schools were set up to provide education for all. In 75 years, education has diversified but now government schools and colleges were shrinking and their very existence was under threat, he said.
Now, the governments were trying to promote the private sector at the cost of government schools. The fall in standards at government and municipal schools could be attributed to the dismal teacher-student ratio, the ‘no detention’ system, which was making students lazy and teachers losing interest in teaching.
APJAC State leader Nageswara Reddy and APMTF leader Ravi Siddharth spoke
