Hyderabad: Private school teachers in pitiable plight

Hyderabad: Covid pandemic and the consequent lockdown have taken away the livelihoods of private school teachers in the city. Most of teachers are not being paid salaries. The very few that are being paid are getting only 50 per cent of their salary. Due to this, they are forced to do odd jobs across the state.

"We are in a horrible situation. I am the only bread earner of my family and with no salary since April, it has been very difficult to meet our daily needs. I had to borrow money at very high interest and do not know how long we will be able to survive on this money. The state government should consider our plight and come to our rescue," pleads Mahadev, a teacher at Gitanjali School.

"Due to the lockdown for the past 4 months, we are not being paid salaries. With no other income to eke out a living, I have opted for daily labour job to support my family,'' said Surender, a Mathematics teacher at Rachana Grammar High School, Kapra

"In spite of working for five years in the same school, the management has asked me to search for other jobs as the school is not conducting online classes and is unable to pay us salaries for the past four months. I have not got any job and without any other option I opted for working as daily labour, so that I can support my family,'' said M Rajan, a teacher at Gitanjali School, Kukatpally.

Madhusdhan, the general secretary of Telangana Recognized School Management Association (TRSMA), said, "This academic year 98 per cent school have not collected any fees, as parents are not in a position to pay the fees. It is the responsibility of the state government to offer free education to children up to 14 years of age as per Right to Education Act. So we are requesting the government to fund the students in the form of direct benefit transfer (DBT) education voucher, so that the parents can pay the fee to school and then the school can function properly and pay salaries to the teachers."

Shabbir Ali, state president, Telangana Private Teachers Forum (TPTF), informed that for the past four months around 90 per cent of teachers were not getting any salaries and they were in horrible condition. There are around 6,500 private school in the city, employing around 1.5 lakh teachers. Due to the Covid impact, teachers are not being paid salaries and they are forced to take up odd jobs such as selling vegetables, doing hard labour. "Many teachers have taken extreme step. We have demanded that the state government strictly ask the school managements to pay salaries to teachers or the state government should provide finical support to the private teachers," Ali said.