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The Hindu

Teachers' body to stage state-wide protests today

The leaders of the AP United Teachers Federation (UTF) are gearing up for State-wide protests on Monday against the stand taken by the School Education Department on key issues like school reorganisation programme, teacher transfers and promotions. The federation's state president N. Venkateswarlu and general secretary K.S.S. Prasad said: 'Sit-in protests would be staged at the offices of the District Education Officers (DEO) across the State.' They said that though the department officials had been holding talks with representatives of the recognised teacher unions every week, they were taking a unilateral stand on key issues and this could harm the school education system. The UTF leaders criticised the previous government and said that the policies implemented were detrimental to the education sector, such as the merger of Classes 3 to 5 with high schools, the teacher re-apportionment process through GO 117, and reducing the teacher strength, which led to increased workloads. These measures ultimately led to the migration of 10 lakh students from government schools to private institutions. The leaders alleged that the TDP-led coalition government had promised to repeal GO 117 and introduce new policies to strengthen the education sector, but it was following in the footsteps of its predecessor. The proposal to upgrade 779 high schools and establish 9,652 model primary schools was welcomed. But they opposed the decision to allot a second teacher post to only high schools with a minimum strength of 54 students. They warned that the move would lead to thousands of surplus posts in high schools, especially those of Mathematics, English, and School Assistant teacher posts. They raised concerns about the priority being given to establish model primary schools at the cost of foundation schools and basic primary schools, and called the move 'objectionable'. They said: 'Monday's protest aims to draw attention to these critical issues that need to be resolved immediately. If the government failed to heed to our demands, then we would be forced to intensify our agitation and will stage a massive sit-in at the Vidya Bhavan on May 15.'