As many as 1,707 teaching and non-teaching staff in government and aided schools in the State are yet to take COVID-19 vaccination, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said.
The Minister who divulged the numbers at a press meet here on Saturday said that of the 1,707 staff members, 1,495 were teachers and 212 non-teachers.
In the lower primary, upper primary and high school section, 1,066 teachers and 189 non-teaching staff were yet to get vaccinated. In the higher secondary section, 200 teachers and 23 non-teaching staff and in the vocational higher secondary staff, 229 teachers remained to be vaccinated. All non-teaching staff in the vocational section had taken their vaccinations.
The highest numbers of teachers in the primary and high school sections who were yet to be vaccinated was in Malappuram - 201. Of them, 184 were teachers and 17 non-teaching staff. Kozhikode was next with 151 unvaccinated school staff.
Reiterating the government’s commitment to safety of students, the Minister said unvaccinated teaching and non-teaching staff should take RT-PCR tests every week and produce the results in schools. Those who have health problems such as illness or allergy should produce medical certificates from authorised State or Union government institutions in the schools concerned. If neither option was acceptable, they could take leave without pay.
The Minister clarified that though the government had a list of unvaccinated teachers, their names and details were not being published as the government did not want to shame them. The split-up of teachers not taking the vaccination for health and other reasons was also available, but was not being divulged as the government was keen on addressing the problem. Any further action would be taken on the basis of the response to the government order in this regard. A decision on allowing unvaccinated teachers to take online classes would be taken after examining the matter.
Data on unvaccinated staff had been sought from unaided schools, and was expected to be available within a week.
There had been a significant change in the number of unvaccinated teachers since it became news in the past few days and the social pressure on them, Mr. Sivankutty said.
An order issued by the Disaster Management department said those unable to take the vaccine owing to recent COVID-19 infection should produce the test certificate showing the infection within past three months.
