Teachers and non-teaching staff of aided high schools in the district have appealed to the State government to speed up the process of merging the institutions with the State-run schools.
At a meeting organised by the Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Guild (APTG), Visakhapatnam District Unit, at the VBV Aided High School, on Sunday, the teachers poured out their woes including delay in the payment of salaries and approaching the managements for leave. The teachers, however, said that they had nothing against the managements, which had provided them jobs.
Several teachers, who are on the verge of retirement, oppose the merger. They feared that the government would transfer them to the schools in far-flung areas. Some of them said that they had submitted consent letters to the DEO’s office as their managements were against it.
APTG State president D. Suresh Kumar said that it was a cherished dream of all teachers and non-teaching staff of aided schools to merge their institutions with the government for better prospects. He called for unity among teachers and non-teaching staff, while recalling the role of the APTG in fighting for the pay revision for teachers in 1983, following which a Cabinet Sub-Committee was appointed by the State government but its recommendations were not implemented. The union succeeded in 1999 to make the demand for payment of salaries of the aided teachers on the first of every month.
He alleged that the managements of aided schools were not contributing to the Aarogya health cards of their teachers, despite instructions issued by the government two years ago.
The meeting adopted resolutions seeking among other things merging of the aided teachers and staff, who had given their consent letters before, but now their managements were expressing their unwilling to hand them over to the government, issue of orders to the officials concerned not to stop annual increments and other allowances.
APTG Visakhapatnam District president D. Bhaskara Rao presided over the meeting. District unit secretary V. Srinivasa Rao, working president S. Manoj Kumar, organising secretary B. Eswara Rao and APTG State Women’s Wing general secretary V. Tulasi Rama were among those who attended.
