Private school teachers in a bind

It is heartening to know that the Telangana CM has understood the plight and penury of teachers working in private schools and colleges and has decided to give them some succour till educational institutions in the State are reopened. It may be recalled here that a couple of young teachers have committed suicide when they had lost jobs following the closure of schools in Telangana for more than a year and most of these teachers have not been paid salaries for the last 10 months. It is in this background that the decision of KCR to give Rs 2000 and 25 kg of rice per month to each teacher is really laudable.

In fact the fate and plight of all the teachers working in private schools throughout the country is almost one and the same! According to one survey there are about 4 Lakh private unaided schools in the country and about 20 lakh teachers are working in them. Most of these teachers have lost their only wherewithal since the closure of schools with effect from March 2020. Since then many of them have been thrown into the streets, while some have taken up jobs in roadside tiffin centres, malls. With help from students, and friends, some teachers have started small time businesses, just to keep the fire burning at home. But, alas, who can understand their humiliation, stress, penury, and ennui!

It is a pity that most teachers are young, well educated, poor, but even in normal times, they are compelled to work for peanuts and exploited by the managements of schools and colleges. Their employers are really very 'imaginative' in their ways and schemes of 'using' these "educated,skilled labour". For the managements, these teachers are a part of 'unorganized work force '.I wish here to talk about only a couple of ways in which school managements "squeeze them in" at all times.

In most private schools, teachers are to be at the beck and call of their employers always. They must be ready to stoop down to any levels only to please the 'master'. They continue in the service as long as they stay in the good books of the management. In my service, I have seen many well qualified private school teachers doing shopping, running errands and in some cases even attending to domestic chores, all for the sake of their master. Of course the master pays these teachers 'at will'.

The fate of 'private teachers' in aided institutions is no better. Here one thing I have to make clear.In aided schools and colleges you find two kinds of teachers. Teachers working in aided posts are paid regular salaries by the State government on par with teachers in government schools. Teachers working in unaided posts are paid meager amounts as salaries by the Managements. In many cases when teachers working in aided posts are 'allowed' by the management to go on personal leave or on Sabbatical leave, private teachers step into their shoes.

Here is the rub. These teachers are expected to get remunerations fixed by the government on par with part-time teachers working in government institutions. Alas, such payments do not often take place. These teachers work even for small amounts only in the fond hope of getting appointed in aided posts one day or getting their services regularised by the government.

Teachers in private schools often face all isms like regionalism, nepotism, casteism. They also bear things like humiliation, hard work, step-motherly treatment and above all the Damocles sword of job uncertainty because they have no other choice and government recruitments take place once in a blue moon.

To the credit of managements, I must say that there are really some good Managements who are fair and who go by the rule book. I was selected in 1991 along with some of my friends by the then AP College Service Commission for appointment as Degree College Lecturer and allotted to an aided college. While the management readily took me into their fold, some of my friends were rejected and sent back by their managements. In my 25 years of service there, our management treated me fairly well and gave all things due to me.

We all know that the need of the hour is to streamline the valuable services of teachers in private schools because these schools, like private companies in our economy, play a vital role in our education system. The Jagan government has already initiated steps in that direction. After all, these teachers expect some fair treatment from their master, steady income, social recognition, and above all support and security in bad times from the government. And CM KCR deserves approbation for his initiative in this regard. It is hoped that other CMs also take a cue from him and give their mite for the cause of private teachers at large.

(The author is retired HOD, Department of English)