Schools ready to open but teachers refuse to return

When the pandemic was raging and the state went into lockdown, thousands of teachers switched over to alternative professions to keep themselves afloat.

One of them was Naresh Kumar, who used to teach maths at a reputed school in Bengaluru. Recently, he was approached by the school to return to his previous career. But Naresh wasn’t keen.

“I got a call from the management where I was working before the pandemic. But I am not interested in coming to Bengaluru as I am happy practising agriculture which is paying me even better,” said Naresh.

And there are many more like Naresh, who are just not interested in taking up teaching again, throwing up an unexpected problem for schools gearing up to conduct regular classes for primary grades.

With the date for normal operations nearing, school managements are now scrambling to make arrangements, posting ads in the media and even looking at the Northeast as a possible source for teachers to suit their Covid-hit budgets.

As per norms, the teacher-student ratio should be 1:30, but right now it stands at 1:60 at the primary level, according to school managements.

“As schools resume for primary classes, we need trained teachers. Hiring freshers won’t serve the purpose as kids have been disconnected with the classroom scenario,” said Somaranjan, secretary of SVVS Institutions, Bengaluru.

Some schools are not in a position to pay huge salaries, limiting their ability to attract top talent.

D Shashi Kumar, Principal, Blossoms School Bengaluru, said, “We are not in a position to offer fat salaries as parents owe us lakhs of rupees in dues. It is difficult to manage classes with the limited human resources that we have now.”

Though schools are doing their best to hire, it is not an easy task to find teachers in a short time.

“Some have even given advertisements in newspapers scouting for experienced teachers. But availability is simply not there,” said B R Supreeth, secretary of Oxford Institutions, Nagarbhavi.

Lokesh Talikatte, President of the Private Schools Association, said he hired teachers from Manipur and Nagaland to tide over the crisis. “There is about a 60 to 70 per cent shortage of teachers in our member schools. I have managed to hire a few from Manipur and Nagaland as I could get none locally,” he said.