Leaders of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Association (FAPTO) on Wednesday said that teachers would stage protests at the offices of the District Education Officers (DEOs) across the State, demanding immediate repeal of the G.O. 117 on July 8 (Friday).
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“The government, instead of focusing on efficient teaching, issued the G.O. 117 that mandates rationalisation of teacher posts. It has been introducing reforms, asserting that they are in sync with the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 and the Right to Education (RTE) Act. However, disintegration of primary schools and implementation of only one medium (English) till Class 8 has not been recommended by the NEP or the RTE,” they told the media here.
The leaders said that despite repeated pleas, the Education Minister and the department had done nothing to address the concerns of the teachers.
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Citing the new pattern mandated by the G.O. 117, the federation leaders said that it envisaged the teacher-student ratio of 1:30 in primary schools, 1:53 in upper primary schools and 1:60 in high schools, defeating the ‘very concept of quality education’.
As per the school restructuring programme, Classes 1 and 2 were being merged with anganwadis while Classes 3, 4 and 5 were being integrated with high schools. The idea was to increase the workload of school assistants, without recruiting teaching staff.
Merger plan
Notwithstanding the protests being staged by parents and students at many places demanding that the existing schools be allowed to continue in their present form, the authorities were going ahead with the merger plans, they pointed out.
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The government records show that the State had more than 8,000 single-teacher primary schools, they pointed out, adding that the implementation of the G.O. would increase the number of such schools by manifold.
They said instead of rushing into such key decisions without taking the stakeholders into confidence, the government should come up with a comprehensive plan by involving educationists and representatives of teacher unions before arriving at a decision.
The leaders reiterated their demands on repeal of G.O. 117, continuation of Telugu and English medium schools, release of a schedule on promotions and transfers of teachers and stop the transfers being made under political influence.
FAPTO chairman N. Venkateswarlu, secretary general Ch. Manjula, deputy secretary generals L. Sai Srinivas, S. Chiranjeevi and others were present on the occasion.