HYDERABAD: Teachers working in private schools are facing hardship due to the non-functioning of the schools and non-payment of salaries since the coronavirus-induced lockdown began, the Telangana Private Teachers’ Forum (TPTF) said on Thursday.
TPTF president Sheik Shabbir Ali said his outfit organised demonstrations outside offices of district Collectors in the state on Wednesday, urging the state government to come to their rescue.
Mr. Ali said memoranda were submitted to the officials who assured to take their problem to the notice of the government. Claiming that about three lakh private school teachers and their families are facing hardships, he said the teachers, who are educated, are now forced to take up other works, including the work of casual labourers, to feed their families.
The teachers of private schools are facing difficulties as the educational institutions have still not been re-opened, he said. Though the state government had issued orders that salaries be paid to the private teachers during the lockdown, it is not being implemented, he claimed.
He urged the government to provide financial assistance to the private teachers either as unemployment dole or as COVID-19 assistance. The school managements should pay full salaries during the lockdown as per the epidemic diseases Act, he said.
Asked about the non-payment of salaries to the private teachers, a senior government official had earlier said the government would do its best to help them.
The private teachers are employed directly by the managements, the official had said. A representative of the school managements’ association had earlier said the salaries got delayed as school fees from parents could not be received properly during the lockdown. The schools depend on fees paid by the parents, he had said.