In response to a call given by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Organisations (FAPTO), teachers across the State staged demonstrations at the offices of the Education Department demanding repeal of the GO 117.
In a statement on Thursday, United Teachers’ Federation State president N. Venkateswarlu and general secretary K.S.S. Prasad said the large-scale protest by teachers in Vijayawada at Dharna Chowk was a grand success. The UTF leaders said the measures proposed for re-apportionment of the teaching staff in government schools would debilitate the education system.
They said even while claiming that not a single primary school would be closed due to the school restructuring programme taken up by the government, the department officials were gearing up to merge Classes 3, 4 and 5 in high schools.
They also found fault with the government’s “unilateral” stand on implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in the State. In the name of reforms, they alleged, the department was initiating measures that would result in closure of many schools and reduction in the teacher posts, and accused the government of thrusting English as a medium of instruction on students in violation of the Supreme Court directive.
MLCs from Progressive Democratic Front strongly condemned the “autocratic” stand of the government with regard to key decisions relating to the education sector.
In a joint statement, MLCs V. Balasubramanyam, K.S. Lakshmana Rao, Y. Srinivasulu Reddy, I. Venkateswara Rao and Shaik Sabji, said besides the nearly 30,000 vacant teacher posts cited by the department, 7,000-8,000 more posts would fall vacant due to the “incoherent” policies of the government, they argued.
They alleged that under the garb of NEP and reforms, the government was implementing the World Bank diktat. Expressing concern that the policies being adopted by the government would ruin the education sector, they urged all like-minded people to form a common platform and scuttle the attempts to destroy the education system.
