Telangana: Around 14,000 private teachers yet to receive government financial assistance

Hyderabad: More than two lakh private teachers have received financial aid from the State government. However, as per figures available with the Telangana Private Teachers' Forum (TPTF), around 30,000 are yet to receive the assistance and rice.

Reason being, the managements, mainly corporate schools, have entered the details of non-person, of their relatives and family members into Unified-District Information System for Education (UDISE). Due to lack of knowledge teachers applied in offline mode. This has led to thousands of private teachers not availing help from the government.

A senior official of the Education department explained that 2.743 lakh teachers have been given the aid. Over 91 per cent of beneficiaries have taken rice. As per the offline data available with the department only 14,000 teachers are yet to receive the aid.

The official said as per norm, the department has provided them more than the number. According to U-DISE data, children studying in private schools are 32 lakh. The amount is distributed to 2.4 lakh, which is 1/60.

However, as per the RTE Act, children in private schools are 1/30 and upper primary 1/35. The benefit is extended to a greater number of private teachers. He reasoned: "Correspondents of the schools have frozen the data on the website. Hence, they couldn't receive the aid.

Their lack of knowledge or information might have led to people applying offline. Now that the website is closed, the government has to make a decision. The department is unaware of any further information on the issue.

Also, a few teachers in Medchal, Ranga Reddy and other districts opted out from receiving aid."

Said Gajula Subba Laxmi, Medchal district TPTF women's wing president: "The government has given priority which was submitted through UDISE.

The managements entered details of their relatives, holding a long record of it so that they can avail benefits. The rest were sent through offline mode. Even more experienced teachers have not received the aid. We appreciate the help from the government, but the financial aid is meagre. Teachers have many other major bills to pay." She said over 10,970 schools have applied for the aid.

Shabbir Ali, TPTF president, along with other teachers, has requested the State to give assitanced to the remaining 30,000-35,000 teachers, who have submitted their details in offline mode. He stated that "they are in dire need because they have not received any salary for more than a year.

If given a day or two by the State government, teachers can apply again in online mode and can receive the aid. Due to the managements' fault, the teachers should not be held responsible."