New teachers' union to stop exploitation

To curb exploitation meted out by schools towards teachers and parents, several teachers from private schools have formed an association to tackle the situation.

Many teachers, non teaching staff from private schools and parents met on Sunday to discuss difficulties caused by school authorities. The meeting was initiated by All-India Parents’ Association.

The rationale behind it was to address the urgent need of parents and teachers to take collective action against such exploitation.

More than 30 teachers and staff members of various unaided private schools and parents whose children study in some of these schools attended the meeting.  

Many issues that appeared common to the teaching and non teaching staff were discussed. These include financial exploitation where the staff are either paid by cash or if paid by cheque they are forced to sign blank cheques and money is withdrawn from their accounts by management agents.  
Moreover, both teaching and non-teaching staff fear losing their jobs as there is no sense of security. Many teachers complained that they are ill-treated.

To ensure immediate action against such forms of exploitation teachers agreed to form an association named All India Unaided Private Schools Employees Association and ten people were selected as officer bearers on ad hoc basis.

The association has planned to hold meetings regularly to resolve problems in an effective manner. “We plan to meet on June 10 to form a basic structure on how our team would work. We hope more teachers join us,” said a teacher.